Originally Posted by Observer

In a surprising turn of events, the Royal Rumble did not cause any kind of significant bump to Raw ratings, as last night's show did 2.40 million viewers, even with it being built around Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair making their choices of WrestleMania opponents and the return interview of Edge.

It was down 12 percent from last year's post-Rumble show that did 2.71 million viewers. To show the ratings decline, for the episode after the Royal Rumble, Raw did 4.10 million viewers in 2016, 3.62 million in 2017, and 3.40 million in 2018 ...

The Raw after the Rumble is usually one of the higher rated episodes of the show during the year, but last night's episode was actually lower than the December 30 show (Lana/Bobby Lashley wedding) and the September 30 show (Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan appearing). It was also lower than the show was routinely doing last summer prior to football season starting. It was only up 0.9 percent, as compared with a 10 percent jump last year and in 2017. In 2018, the show followed the Raw 25th anniversary episode which was the highest rated Raw in years ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.54 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.44 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.22 million viewers

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network will soon debut a new series titled "Ruthless Aggression" focusing on that era of WWE history.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Brock Lesnar tied the record for most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble match with 13 eliminations tonight.

Bianca Belair and Shayna Baszler now share the record for the most eliminations inside of the women's Royal Rumble. During the 2020 30-women spectacular, both members of the NXT roster got eight eliminations apiece, but they did so from drastically different positions in the match.

Originally Posted by Observer

There is a full page color ad for AEW in the official program for next week's Super Bowl. It is right next to the table of contents so it's very prominent

Originally Posted by PWI

There were attempts to bring in Melina and Victoria for last night's Rumble at one point. No word why it didn't happen. Melina worked the NWA TV tapings in Atlanta over the weekend.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Mark Hildreth, who wrestled as ‘Van Hammer’ in WCW was arrested following an incident Sunday. The Palm Beach Post reported that Hildreth struck a 5-year old boy on his bicycle with his car and proceeded to leave the scene. Hildreth is facing charges of leaving the scene of an injury crash and a DUI. The unnamed victim was taken to hospital and is in stable condition with possible internal injuries. Hildreth was in court on Monday morning with bail set at $125,000 and includes an option to be placed under house arrest. In the story, it also states he was believed to be going 58 mph where the limit was 35. As Van Hammer, he debuted for WCW in 1991 and was placed on a two-month winning streak out of the gate. The company would go hot and cold with him and he ended up staying with WCW throughout the decade. He was a member of Raven’s Flock and then given another push in 1999 around the time Kevin Nash was booking the show. His last run in WCW saw him as a member of the Misfits in Action as ‘Major Stash’ until leaving the company in mid-2000.

Originally Posted by Observer

Tokyo Sports reported that Pro Wrestling NOAH has become a subsidiary of CyberAgent, which is also the parent company of DDT.

Originally Posted by PWI

This past week's episode of MLW FUSION, headlined by the no ropes barbed wire match between Jimmy Havoc and Mance Werner was the highest rated episode of MLW on BeIN Sport to date. MLW sources have claimed they are in discussions with four potential outlets for TV and streaming rights and they are positive on future media rights revenue.

There has been some discussion of adding a Trios (Six Man Tag Team) Championship to the promotion.

MLW will return to Philadelphia, PA this Saturday 2/1 for Fightland The event has a great advance for the promotion, which sold it its last show at the 2300 Arena last year, to the point that additional seats have been added and released for sale at www.MLW2300.com ...

The women's division is on hold as Zeda Zhang, who it was to be built around, is out with an injury. Priscilla Kelly's final contracted date with the promotion is 2/1.

Originally Posted by PWI

In regard to stories that Brock Lesnar and Matt Riddle had a run-in at the Royal Rumble backstage, where Lesnar made it clear to Riddle (who constantly talks about retiring Lesnar on social media) that he will never work with Riddle, so he should knock it off, there's absolutely truth to the story, to the point that earlier today, during a media class at the WWE Performance Center, there was a specific mention of not tweeting and calling out talents from Raw and Smackdown without their knowledge, which got a big laugh from the NXT talents in attendance.

Originally Posted by PWI

Carlos Rocha has passed away at age 93. “The Portuguese Champion” wrestled all over the world including for the International Wrestling Association and the WWWF.

He won the International Title from Abdullah the Butcher in December 1971 and lost it to The Sheik in the May 1972. Both matches took place in Montreal, Quebec, Canada where IWA was based. His matches with The Sheik drew attendance records at the time.

Rocha appeared for the WWWF in the later 1970s when he was in his early 50s. He was the first pro wrestler from Portugal to work for the company. He lost a 2 out of 3 falls match to WWF Champion “Superstar” Billy Graham in 1977 in Providence, Rhode Island.

Originally Posted by PWI

Taya Valkyrie took to Twitter noting that she was in attendance at the Royal Rumble, was there to see her husband John Morrison in a WWE ring for the first-time ever and that fans shouldn't look any deeper into her being there:

Hey guys last night I went and supported my husband John. It was the first time I’ve ever seen him in a WWE ring live. So stop reading into it or making assumptions. Love,
Kira
— Wera Loca (@TheTayaValkyrie) January 27, 2020

Valkyrie's Impact deal was automatically renewed in December for another year, so she is locked in until December 2020.

Originally Posted by PWI

As you saw last night on Monday Night Raw, Byron Saxton joined Tom Phillips and Jerry Lawler as a member of the Raw broadcast team.

PWInsider.com has confirmed that Saxton is back on the Raw broadcast team full-time going forward with the company going back to a three-man format.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Killer Kross is a free agent and, at the moment, he's uncertain about his future. Kross was released from his IMPACT contract in December, putting him on the market. He is set to compete at MLW Fightland on Feb. 1, but his future following Fightland is up in the air.

It was reported on Jan. 17 by the Wrestling Observer that Kross was set to or had already met with NXT Founder and WWE Executive Triple H. Fightful Select reported on Jan. 26 that as of last week, Triple H and Kross had not had a face-to-face meeting.

In an interview with Two Man Powertrip, Kross himself denied ever meeting Triple H.

"I have to address this. You had mentioned Hunter or Triple H. I've never met him. I don't know where the story came up exactly first in the dirt sheets and I don't really pay that much attention to them, but I've never met him. I think it's cool and kind of flattering that those stories circulate but I'd like to meet him. If someone could make that happen that would be great. I know it's not meant to be malicious or whatnot and it's fun to fantasize about that stuff but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet," he said.

In addition to the report that Triple H and Kross had not met face-to-face, Fightful Select reported to not expect Killer Kross to be available for bookings during WrestleMania week. Kross is free to sign with any promotion, though he says he isn't sure what is next for him.

Originally Posted by Observer

The night before he faces Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, Drew McIntyre will be the focus of a new episode of WWE Chronicle.

During his appearance on WWE's The Bump today, it was announced that a Chronicle episode on McIntyre will premiere on the WWE Network after NXT TakeOver: Tampa on Saturday, April 4. McIntyre will challenge Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36 the next day.

Originally Posted by Observer

Shingo Takagi and Bandido are set to face off over WrestleMania week.

WrestleCon announced today that Takagi vs. Bandido will take place at their Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow in Tampa, Florida on Thursday, April 2. The show is taking place at The Ritz Ybor City and will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

WrestleCon wrote that this may be the only match they announce for the SuperShow in advance. Will Ospreay, Black Taurus, Zack Sabre Jr., and Amazing Red have also been confirmed for the event.

Originally Posted by PWI

The pro-wrestling related musical called "Rockquiem For A Wrestler" by Philip Paul Kelley is moving forward in production and will have a new reading on Sunday 5/3 at the Triad Theater in New York City. The second Staged Reading will be an elevated event featuring a 5-piece band with technical enhancements.

The musical is a dramatic parody inspired by the life of Ivan Koloff.

Originally Posted by PWI

An update on Taya Valkyrie's contract status from yesterday. She is stating on social media that her contract did not automatically roll over as I wrote yesterday and that she actually signed a new multi-year Impact Wrestling contract last year. We were told her deal automatically rolled over in December 2019, which she disputes. A new deal would lock her in with the company through sometime in 2021, based on her claims. Konnan stated on a recent episode of his podcast that he believed her deal was up in ten months, which falls in line with what we have heard.

Originally Posted by PWI

Two different venues known as the Sportatorium that were important to pro wrestling fans in their respective cities will move forward, leaving their past behind,

The Dallas Morning News reported earlier this month that the land that once housed the Sportatorium that housed World Class Championship Wrestling, the USWA and the Global Wrestling Federation, which has sat as a vacant field for years, has been sold to a developer that owns the adjacent land with plans to develop the site into a new development. The site, when the Sportatorium was standing, housed pro wrestling dating back to the 1950s.

Meanwhile, in Tampa, the Sportatorium that once housed Championship Wrestling from Florida, located at 106 N. Albany Avenue was reported to have been leased for future commercial purposes, according to the Tampa-Bay Times.

Originally Posted by PWI

STARDOM officially announced a second DLC pack featuring 11 performers will be coming to the Fire Pro Wrestling World video game March 5. The promotion had a press conference and tweeted the following

Originally Posted by PWI

The main event of the 2020 NWA Crockett Cup PPV in Atlanta this April will be NWA Champion Nick Aldis vs. Marty Scurll with the stipulation that if Scurll loses, he must write a check to refund the cost of attendance that night.

The scene was set with the following segment:

"What if you have to pay for your greed?"@RealNickAldis lays out very EXPENSIVE TERMS for @MartyScurll on #AldisVsScurll 2 at #CrockettCup.#NWAPowerrr - https://t.co/GIJypXxeCP pic.twitter.com/W6aAVmxN3a
— NWA (@nwa) January 29, 2020

The event will also feature the 2020 Crockett Cup tournament.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The biggest story concerns the state of Pro Wrestling NOAH, which is now under new management as a subsidiary of CyberAgent Incorporated with the news first reported by Tokyo Sports. Just last year, 75% of the company had been sold to LIDET from Estbee Co. Ltd. CyberAgent has acquired 100% ownership of NOAH ...

CyberAgent purchased DDT (Dramatic Dream Team) in 2017 and is going to lead to the two companies working together in several capacities ...

The @DDTpro_eng handle translated Wednesday’s press conference and provided the following notes:
*Sanshiro Takagi will serve as President of both DDT and NOAH while Naomichi Marfuji is listed as the Executive Vice President of NOAH
*Takagi is designated to work on the business end and leave the creative day-to-day with Marufuji and former NOAH President Arihiro Takeda
*It was Takagi who got the ball rolling after NOAH’s finances were hit and approached Susumu Fujita about saving NOAH with Takagi and Takeda beginning to speak in November
*NOAH’s relationship with LIDET (the previous owners)will continue with the group staying on board as a corporate sponsor
*NOAH will be running a free show on Thursday on DDT Universe, which is their streaming service and is the first time NOAH has been linked to a streaming service with several shows airing on YouTube over the past year. The plan is for DDT Universe to carry 1-2 NOAH shows per month. They have already added a NOAH section on the service.
*They also announced that DDT and NOAH will run back-to-back nights at Sumo Hall on November 21st and 22nd

Originally Posted by Fightful

Diamond Dallas Page returned to the ring for the first time in nearly four years on the Jan. 15 episode of AEW Dynamite. Page teamed with Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall in a losing effort to The Butcher, The Blade, & MJF.

Page has worked with AEW dating back to All In, helping out Cody on-screen and off. Despite his input in certain aspects, Page told Wrestling Inc that he is not part of the creative team in AEW. And while many may believe that DDP isn't welcome in WWE due to his AEW affiliation, DDP stated that's not the case.

"WWE's coming here on Wednesday and they're gonna interview me for [Karl] Malone and [Dennis] Rodman. I'm like in the middle – I wanna be able to help Cody with whatever he needs but if WWE needs something from me, then I'm always there for them. They've treated me super-great for the last 10 years," he said.

Originally Posted by Fightful

After nearly nine years away from the ring, Edge made his return at WWE Royal Rumble. Edge was forced to retire in 2011 due to cervical spinal stenosis, but was able to get healthy and cleared for his in-ring return on Sunday.

Appearing on WWE Backstage, his longtime tag team partner and friend Christian, gave a little more insight on how Edge was feeling about his return.

"It was alright," Christian joked when asked how amazing the moment was for himself and Edge. "WWE is about creating moments. Creating moments that will stand the test of time. You think back to when Edge had to retire due to his neck injury. It's an unforgettable moment. This is much bigger than that. It's unheard of for somebody to come back from this type of injury after nine years off from the ring. As a performer, those thoughts always creep into your mind when you've been away for that long. 'Can I still do this at the level that I did before?' You don't want to come back at any less than that. When I talked to him after, I was like, 'How did it feel out there?' He's like, 'Man, I was really nervous.' To put that in perspective, I was the one that got nervous in our team. He was always calming me down. He had nerves of steel. For him to say that, that just shows you how big of a moment that was for him and the WWE Universe. It will be remembered forever."

In the Royal Rumble match, Edge shared the ring with an old friend in Randy Orton and some new faces in Drew McIntyre, Roman Reigns, and AJ Styles. Christian discussed Edge's mindset on his future, revealing that Edge can't wait to work with fresh opponents.

"When talking to him before he came back, his mindset is already like, 'Man, I can get in the ring with Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Aleister Black.' All of these superstars that he's never had a chance (to wrestle). Dream matches. These are legit dream matches. The sky is the limit from here," he said.

Originally Posted by Seph (Post 5317960)

lol I absolutely adore Matt Riddle. I feel like at some point Lesnar is going to squash him for all this but idgaf because Riddle is still a king.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

What’s notable is that in all the plans until the last week, Reigns and Baszler were scheduled as the Rumble winners. Vince McMahon changed his mind about a week ahead of time. We don’t know exactly when, but significant money came in on Flair to win on 1/19, so that’s a pretty good hint.

The reasons were that it was said he wanted matches to create stronger main events for Mania. For the men’s side, that does make sense. The decision is to go all out with Lesnar vs. McIntyre as the main event at this point, barring an outside attraction match, and not Wyatt vs. Reigns. The original idea was for Lesnar to destroy everyone in the Rumble, eliminating the first 13 guys, until a combination of a low blow by Ricochet (in retaliation to Lesnar laying out Ricochet on TV the week before with a low blow) and a Claymore kick by McIntyre would lead to Lesnar being out. The idea is that once he eliminated Lesnar, that McIntyre didn’t need to win, and that Reigns could win and challenge Wyatt so you have the two title matches as someone even.

But McMahon wanted to establish Lesnar vs. McIntyre as the main event, and thus everything is geared to making the main event as strong as it

It should also be noted that it was only in the last few weeks that McIntyre was in the spot to face Lesnar. We were only told that Cain Velasquez, Tyson Fury and Edge, who were the names rumored for Lesnar, were all not true. The decision came down to McIntyre and Aleister Black, the latter a major Paul Heyman project. The feeling is that at this point in time, McIntyre was the more over of the two so the decision was made for him.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Right now the Flair match on the books is with Ripley for the NXT title. It’s the latest move to give NXT new juice since it fell behind AEW once again in the ratings after the momentum had seemingly turned away from AEW in November and December. While some thought that the AEW vs. NXT deal as a prime concern was over in McMahon’s mind, since the whole idea was to make sure AEW didn’t get strong enough numbers to get the paying television deal that would make them profitable and not going away any time soon. In that sense, McMahon failed in the big picture, with only some little wins like keeping other groups out of Madison Square Garden, which is a big deal to him, but far less important nowadays in the big picture ...

Still, if Lynch vs. Baszler is the key women’s match on the show, then it would have made sense for Baszler to win the Rumble, particularly since a large percentage of the viewership doesn’t watch NXT and isn’t familiar with her, yet she’s in the top women’s match on the show unless Rousey is coming back, which according to what we are told, Rousey will not be wrestling this year at Mania.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The other major story was the return of Edge (Adam Copeland, 46), who retired after the 2011 WrestleMania due to neck problems ...

He wouldn’t have been allowed to do that spear at SummerSlam if he wasn’t cleared. This all dates back to last summer when AEW made Edge a major offer to wrestle a few matches per year. Edge used that offer, which he told WWE was for $3 million per year and he would start when the company got television as his leverage, to get the same deal with WWE. So that was his leverage to get one of the highest deals in WWE history ...

Since this is now a second time this has happened, it does bring up unique speculation as to guys who were medically disqualified from ever wrestling in WWE again (Edge and Bryan) both were cleared when it became clear that they were going to wrestle outside WWE. It’s not as cut-and-dried as that, but when it happens twice in a row involving talents that legitimately would garner substantial interest outside WWE, it is notable.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The men’s Rumble was put together by Shane McMahon, James Gibson (Noble) , Chris Park (Abyss) and Lance Evers (Storm) with input by Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar regarding the early part of the match. Vince McMahon was heavily involved in the finishing sequence and not only made the final call on McIntyre winning, but also the sequence and his eliminating Reigns last.

The women’s Rumble was put together by Michael Seitz (Hayes), T.J. Wilson (Tyson Kidd), Adam Pearce, Mickie James and Paul Levesque had input the day of the show to help out and made it flow better.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

U.S. champion Andrade failed a drug test, which those in the company were informed of on 1/27 in the afternoon. Paul Heyman made the call not to take the title off Andrade, who was suspended without pay for 30 days. He sees Andrade as one of his major players going forward and felt it was too early for him to lose, and too early in a planned long-term program with Humberto Carrillo for Carrillo to win. So they did an angle where Carrillo gave Andrade a hammerlock DDT after removing the protective mats on the floor. It was retaliation for what Andrade did to Carrillo that put him out of action for a few weeks. So there was a storyline fit in how it was handled.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The Rumble drew a sellout of 36,000 fans to Minute Maid Park in Houston with the announced figure being 42,715. There were some people turned away the day of the show. They sold out with the walk-up as they were selling tickets until just before show time. The paid would have been in excess of 30,000 as that was the figure they were in the ballpark of two weeks out ...

As impressive as that crowd is given the general toughness in selling tickets to live wrestling these days in the U.S., the interest in this year’s Rumble was way down. It had 500,000 Google searches, which by modern standards would mean the equivalent of a PPV show that by old standards would do 125,000 to 230,000 buys, which is way lower than any Rumble has ever done in modern times prior to the network.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

For the second time in less than a year, Pro Wrestling NOAH has been sold, this time to CyberAgent, a Japanese media company that is worth $5 billion.

CyberAgent also owns the DDT promotion, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and Genbare Pro Wrestling. The company is best known for advertising and games, and also owns Abema TV, major Japanese sports streaming service ...

How this affects the Japanese big picture scene is a tough call. New Japan is far more popular, and really is in a different league than all other companies in the Japanese market right now. But CyberAgent is larger than Bushiroad, and everyone also knows that WWE is coming with an NXT brand in Japan. There is the feeling that a WWE/CyberAgent affiliation could be a threat to New Japan’s market domination far more than either could separately, with the idea that DDT doesn’t have the mass appeal, while NOAH doesn’t have the star power, and a combination of the two would probably be stronger, but also alienate both company’s current fan bases since each fan base like the current style and a melding of styles would get a bad reaction from much of each group’s current base.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE’s latest new concept show, NXT World’s Collide, built around a series of all-star matches with the U.S. and U.K. brands against each other, debuted the night before the Royal Rumble, on 1/25 in Houston ...

The crowd was 3,500 at the Toyota Center, about half or less of what you’d expect for a Takeover in the same building.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The NWA did its Hard Times PPV on 1/24 from Atlanta’s PBS Studios ...

Dave Lagana said that this PPV did more streaming buys than the first one.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

It’s largely expected that Parka’s son will take over the La Parka gimmick in some form, but not any time soon. AAA feels the La Parka character is part of the legacy of the promotio

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There have been at least openings of lines of communication between New Japan and Viceland for U.S. television. It’s a long process because TV-Asahi owns the footage rights and the AXS/New Japan deal was originally between AXS and TV-Asahi

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

In a move that will significantly hurt AEW’s PPV numbers going forward, ITV has dropped its entire PPV division. Right now the 2/29 Revolution show will be on FITE streaming and they are in talks with another television PPV provider in the U.K. but there aren’t that many options. ITV 4 would air the one hour pre-show live on television to push buys which made sense since they were partners and that also helped drive buys. U.K. television PPV usually meant around 15,000 to 20,000 buys, and while some will move to FITE, not everyone does so because a solid percentage of the audience still has an aversion to Internet only PPV

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Tony Khan went to TNT before the 1/15 show to get the station’s approval on Jericho spiking Moxley in the eye with a spike, noting that TBS was furious in 1988 when the Road Warriors did the same thing to Dusty Rhodes. In fact, Rhodes got in a lot of trouble for booking that then. The other thing he got cleared in advance was MJF’s idea to wear the “I banged Dallas’ daughter” t-shirt. In reality, MJF and Page’s daughter Lexy Nair, who is now working for AEW as a backstage interviewer are actually good friends and she got a kick out of it. MJF is a big fan of old-time territories and got the idea from Greg Valentine wearing the “I broke Wahoo’s leg” T-shirts in the Carolinas in the 70s

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There was a lot of talk this past week regarding the funeral of Rocky Johnson on 1/21. Superstar Billy Graham, who was not at the funeral, but his mother-in-law, who was friends with Johnson, was. He made a facebook post saying Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson were inconsiderate and tasteless. We heard from two people at the funeral who said that was true. They said that the pastor went very long and was more negative toward pro wrestling and it being fake than some were comfortable with. They said Vince did his strut coming to the podium which was way out of place and first put over Johnson for being a great athlete and performer. He then ended by saying the best thing Rocky ever did was marry Ata (Ata Maivia). He then pointed to Ata and said that Ata had kids (they had one child, Dwayne) and then he strutted off the stage. He then left the building. Shane and Paul Levesque left shortly after. Two people said that Vince made it clear he was annoyed the funeral went long. Vince did do the same thing at Eddy Guerrero’s funeral in 2005 ... One person noted that the preacher went long, which took away from time for friends and family speeches. He described Patterson’s speech as weird. The description was that he made perverted jokes, used the word shit, didn’t really talk that much in his speech about Johnson, kind of insulted Johnson at one point and eventually they cut his mic off. Patterson also talked about getting drunk the night before and going to the bathroom to drink some water when the toilet seat fell and hit him in the head, implying he was drinking out of the toilet ... Al Rosen, a close friend of Johnson’s, said that the family was not offended by anything that happened

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There was an incident backstage at the Royal Rumble where Lesnar went to Riddle and told him to quit tagging him in posts and talking about him in social media because he would never work with him ever ... After the show, Riddle filmed some interviews where he was still challenging Lesnar and guaranteed some day the match will happen. Put it this way, if this is a Paul Heyman work, and to be fair, this would fit into his M.O. (think Lesnar/Undertaker at UFC), the one flaw is that if he’s grooming Riddle for Lesnar in a year, or even two years, that Riddle would have been protected more in the Rumble and got to stand out more rather than just being a guy dumped quickly. We’re told that Riddle’s Rumble performance was because he has a lot of heat right now with the Vince McMahon and this was to send a message. At a class at the Performance Center this week, on dealing with social media, talent was told not to call out anyone on the main roster in social media without their knowledge. The elimination was not primarily to use Riddle’s hardcore fan popularity as a way to get Corbin over more as a heel past the idea Corbin himself was chosen for it for that reason. But that wasn’t the reason he was in and out so quickly. We’re not sure as to why McMahon wanted to do that to him but it does explain his push not being commensurate with his marketability or how over he is.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ratings are in for the latest installment of the Wednesday Night Wars -- and both shows dropped from last week against better-than-usual competition from both the NBA and cable news programming.

AEW Dynamite on TNT averaged 828,000 viewers, down five percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show was down three percent, averaging a 0.34 rating. That rating, though, was good for third place overall on cable, the best the show has ever performed in relation to cable competition.

NXT on the USA Network was down seven percent, averaging 712,000 viewers. In the demo, they finished 37th on cable with a 0.22 rating, down eight percent from last week ...

As it does most weeks, NXT lost to Dynamite in every demo except those over 50, where NXT had a 0.36 to 0.29 advantage. The strongest category for AEW was men 18-49, where they had a 0.48 to 0.28 advantage.

The season two premiere of Miz & Mrs., which aired after NXT last night, averaged 437,000 total viewers and a 0.18 rating in the 18-49 demo. The season one finale averaged 1.094 million viewers and a 0.38 rating in the demo when airing after SmackDown in August.

With Miz & Mrs. airing after the show, NXT didn't have an overrun last night.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, who will be inducted into the company's Hall of Fame for the second time over Wrestlemania 36 weekend, is slated to be part of the Thursday 2/27 WWE Super Showdown in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, PWInsider.com has confirmed

Originally Posted by PWI

Production on the only “Official and Authorized” feature-length documentary of Joanie “Chyna” Laurer has begun. Laurer was known to the world as a groundbreaking professional wrestler and as the “9th Wonder Of The World.” This documentary has been authorized by Joanie Laurer’s estate.

The documentary will explore Laurer’s tremendous influence both inside and outside the ring to millions of adoring fans through interviews and images with a wide range of subjects selected, including Joanie’s mother, Jan LaQue.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE filed for a trademark on “Viktor” on 1/24, likely to prevent him from using the name in post-WWE endeavors following The Ascension’s release. They are slated to begin working independent dates next month.

The company also filed for a new trademark on Dana Brooke on 1/24.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling & Fightful

Mauro Ranallo was a guest on TSN 1040 in Vancouver for Bell Let’s Talk Day to discuss his struggles with mental health issues and his treatment.

Ranallo noted that the past year was one of the hardest between his schedule, turning 50, and spending lots of money for mental health treatment. He disclosed that he was hospitalized this past summer at UCLA and is continuing intensive treatment when he isn’t on the road.

With regards to his treatment, he said when he isn’t on road he is at a center where he attends various treatment classes that begin at 10 am and lasts until around 5 pm.

The incident over Survivor Series weekend with Corey Graves was brought up by the hosts and addressed for the first time publicly by Ranallo ...

“It was a blessing in disguise. I have nothing really to say about Corey Graves or anyone else in my professional existence in the sense that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, everyone is able to critique everyone the way they would. I would never do something like that to a co-worker but that has been addressed and if anything, I even publicly thank Corey Graves because he was the straw that broke the proverbial back in terms of my social media activity and I will say here and now, I have deactivated all of my social media since November and I would implore everyone, especially those with mental health issues. Social media is so dangerous to those of us with mental health conditions and I know in the media and our everyday lives now, people are being hired and fired by their social media followings or the amount of information they post or how popular they are.

I think it’s a disease. So out of that situation with my colleague, I am no longer on social media. I will never get back on social media. If anything, it was a benefit to me. I try to look towards the positive among the negatives that we all endure and for me, it just allowed me to unhook myself from the social media aspects of life. I found myself doing way too much and it ate way too much time. Being in the media, being a sports commentator for combat sports, I am following as much as I can, I know as much as I ever did. So for anyone dealing with mental health issues, I would suggest decreasing, or deactivating your social media... I know how important it is for a lot of people in terms of their jobs, but I said a big 'F-U' to social media and I wish I would have done it sooner"

Originally Posted by Fightful

Ronda Rousey will return to WWE whenever she wants. And it might be at a live event in Largo.

Appearing on WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves, Ronda was asked the question on everyone's mind; when will she return to WWE?

"Whenever the hell I feel like it. If they would just let me show up at live events, probably very soon," she replied.

Rousey hasn't been seen on WWE television since losing to Becky Lynch in the triple threat main event at WrestleMania 35. There was a lot of speculation surrounding a potential appearance at the 2020 Royal Rumble, but nothing came to fruition.

Her mentioning "showing up at live events" was a reference to an earlier part of the conversation when she was asked what she missed most about her time in WWE.

"I miss live shows, so much," she said. "I wish I could show up randomly at live shows, if that makes sense. That's what I miss the most. I would never do hair and makeup on those days, we'd just hang out in the locker room until we had to go out there and [perform]. I love the camaraderie and the laid back feeling of live show days. Jump in the car after and go to the next town. Never being able to find food and eating beef jerky all night. I miss that."

Originally Posted by Observer

A "Killer" has joined the ranks of Josh Barnett's Bloodsport III.

GCW and Barnett announced Friday that Killer Kelly has been added to the Thursday, April 2nd event in Ybor City, Florida.

The German-based talent from Portugal is currently a member of the NXT UK roster, but isn't exclusive to them as she is a frequent presence in wXw and as of two weeks ago, wants to fill up her schedule.

Originally Posted by Observer

ROH has made a pair of match announcements for their Past vs. Present event.

Members of Generation Next and Villain Enterprises are set to face off at Past vs. Present, with Alex Shelley & Matt Sydal teaming against Marty Scurll & Flip Gordon.

Shelley and Sydal weren't in Generation Next at the same time. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, and Jack Evans were the other members of the group.

Homicide will also take on Brody King of Villain Enterprises in a singles match at Past vs. Present.

Originally Posted by Observer

After the challenge was issued on Monday, ROH has confirmed that Marty Scurll vs. Jay White is official for Supercard of Honor XIV.

Originally Posted by PWI

While there has been some conspiracy theories about the exit of Barrios and Wilson (which we will touch upon below), we are told that the primary reason they are gone is that McMahon and his Co-Presidents had completely different visions as to how the company could generate revenue, new and existing, going forward and as one staffer joked, “It’s never going to be Vince who loses that argument" ...

PWInsider.com is told that an internal announcement released by the company to its employees was even more direct, alluding to irreconcilable differences in the company’s strategic priorities. Barrios and Wilson had one vision and Vince McMahon had another. Vince’s vision will always win. He’s Vince McMahon. The end.

Within WWE, the reaction among employees we have spoken to was pretty much complete shock. If there was something brewing that was leading to yesterday’s ouster, it was kept extremely quiet and was not something being spoken about openly within WWE’s Stamford offices. Given that the news wasn’t held for the weekend (when most companies would dump negative news, hoping it’s forgotten by the time the work week begins) and was announced out of nowhere, that would be an indication that something happened that led to an immediate blowup and departure.

One WWE employee, speaking under condition of anonymity, stated that when the news was announced internally, all work that they were aware of pretty much “ground to a halt” as everyone was stunned by the news. Another staffer claimed it was the most shocking day they could remember since “that horrible day in 2007”, a day where WWE fired 10% of its workforce.

There was a lot of feelings of “what happens now” with projects and strategies that were already underway, including the planned tiered launch of the WWE Network that had been earmarked for the first quarter of 2020. Others, however, tempered that worry, noting that if the company “lived on” after Linda McMahon left and Shane McMahon’s 2009 resignation from the company, that the “machine” that is WWE won’t stop for anyone’s departure.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Evercore ISI media analyst John Belton was cited in Multichannel News with the following reaction to Thursday’s news:

"These developments will clearly cause weakness in WWE shares for a variety of reasons. 2020 adjusted OIBDA expectations must be further cut, particularly given updated 2019 guidance now targeting the low end of the prior range. Second, to the extent that the disagreements between McMahon and Barrios / Wilson centered on reinvestment and / or capital allocation policies, hopes for more shareholder-friendly initiatives moving forward could be diminished. Third, the abrupt nature of the release suggests a tumultuous situation at the company which makes it difficult to gain confidence in forecasting the near- and long- term financial outlook."

Eric Handler of MKM Partners as noted in Market Watch:

"This change, in our view, was unexpected. Investors are now even more concerned about 2020 adjusted OIBDA guidance. However, given the known step-up in the domestic TV rights deal, we do not believe the company is in a ‘precarious’ financial position."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE stock closed at $48.88 on Friday and represents a drop of 21.5% from Thursday’s close.

Originally Posted by PWI

Q - Is Robert Stone designed to be a Tony Khan parody?

A - No. I get this question a lot, specifically whether WWE costumed Stone to look like Khan. That isn't the case. Stone has been dressed in that fashion on the independents and for House of Hardcore for several years, long before Tony Khan was involved in professional wrestling. I don't think the idea is to parody Khan.

Originally Posted by PWI

FOX sent out the following

Earlier today Roku notified their users they intend to remove FOX apps, including FOX Sports, FOX NOW, FOX News, and FOX Nation. We’re as surprised – and disappointed – as you! Only Roku can remove our apps from your device, and we’ve not asked them to do that. Be assured, if there’s a disruption, it will be Roku’s decision alone. While we work to continue our relationship with Roku, we are happy to keep our apps available to you, and we regret Roku has chosen to threaten your access solely to improve its own business interests ...

For those of you who watch Smackdown via FOX Apps, Roku has responded to the FOX situatiion with the following statement:

Roku’s distribution agreement with FOX Corp to distribute FOX channels is set to expire on Jan. 31. We don’t want to see that happen but we have tried for months to get FOX to sign an agreement and we offered FOX an extension but they declined.

If an agreement is not reached, we will be forced to remove FOX channels from the Roku platform because we can’t distribute content without an agreement. Every content provider has a distribution agreement on every platform. It gives the legal right to distribute.

Meanwhile customers can view FOX programming including the big game in many other ways on the Roku platform including through fuboTV, Sling TV, Hulu + LiveTV, and YouTube TV. Many offer free trials for new customers. In addition Roku TV customers can use an antenna to watch FOX channels.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The Revival once again asked for their release from WWE at some point last week. As of now, Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder remain under contract with the company.

Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live first reported the news. Fightful was able to confirm the report.

Originally Posted by Fightful

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cena discussed his Royal Rumble viewing experience and the one performer who really stood out to him.

"I thought the [Royal Rumble] was extra special," Cena told Sports Illustrated. "It was great to be able to watch it as a fan and not endure any fear of missing out and just enjoy the event. And I can say with the utmost sincerity that I believe Brock Lesnar is best in-ring performer that I've seen and I know it's an opinion, and if you want a cool quote, here it is: I think he's the best in-ring performer of all time. I thought his performance at the Rumble was a clinic on how to establish yourself, how to establish those around you, establish the championship, establish the importance of one event. He did so in less than 30 minutes, and I certainly don't have the skill set to do that, and it was awesome to be able to see a masterclass man put on a clinic on what to do and how to do it and I was really impressed with the Rumble."

When asked if Brock is the best ever, Cena didn't back down from his statement.

"I really do think so," he stated. "I genuinely think he has a good understanding of who he is. I think he's the best at when he needs to be dominant, he's the best in situations of jeopardy. He makes people better. He still has a mystique about him that will draw eyeballs to watch him and when he does he never disappoints. I watched from home did not know the result of the Rumble and I thought Brock was gonna run the table and win. I knew the first 27 entrants would be boring, but I knew by 28 and 29 I'd be on the edge of my seat and asking the question, "What happens to the WrestleMania main event now that the No. 1 entrant ran the table and is the champion for the first time ever?"

He continued, "And I love it when a plan comes together, to quote a member of the A Team. You could see how uneasy the crowd was with Brock's dominance and then over the course of time, how it became exciting and how it became riveting and then how it became like must-see and that's who Brock Lesnar is. He believes so much in his presence, and he has such a definable presence you can't ignore him and he never wastes anyone's time and everything he does is special and everything he does meaningful and it's not all selfish. He's one of the most giving performers in the WWE and that is the mark of a true craftsman and a true professional. It was awesome to watch. My jaw dropped when I watched the Rumble."

Originally Posted by Fightful

Taya Valkyrie will be with IMPACT Wrestling into 2021 according to a recent tweet from her.

There seemed to be some confusion around the expiration of Taya's contract as PWInsider reported her deal had rolled over and would run through December 2020. Taya denied that her contract rolled over, saying she signed a two-year deal in 2019. She didn't give a date on when in 2019 she signed a new contract. The earliest her current deal would expire is January 2021.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw last night did 2.17 million viewers, which would be among the lowest non-holiday and non-football numbers in the history of the show.

The only non-holiday Raw shows that weren't against major football competition in modern history that were lower were two episodes last year against major NBA playoff games. For a non-holiday show without major sports competition, it was the lowest in the last 23 years.

It was down 10 percent from last week's post-Royal Rumble episode and down 14 percent from the same week last year. WWE did have the top three spots in the 18-49 demo on cable, but were down 12 percent to 0.67 in that demo from last week ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.32 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.16 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.02 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

This was Raw’s second-lowest mark of 2020 with their lowest number of January 13th going against the LSU vs. Clemson football game that did over 25 million viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE stock continued to fall today, closing at $46.08 per share, the lowest close since before the FOX deal was signed. A big part of the drop was Benjamin Swinburne of Morgan Stanley downgrading the price target from $80 to $54, based on the firing of George Barrios and Michelle Wilson. He said the three things of concern are losing Barrios & Wilson leaves the company without senior leadership at the same time Vince McMahon is starting the XFL, concern about WWE's capital allocation plans which was part of the dispute, and fear the loss of Wilson and Barrios will affect WWE's relationships with Fox, Progressive Insurance (a key sponsor) and key talent. He felt the company will be pressured by Wall Street until they hire at least one well-known new executive with a strong track record.

Originally Posted by PWI

Bill Goldberg's appearance on Friday Night Smackdown this week is to set the stage for Goldberg's involvement in the 2/27 Super Showdown event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, PWInsider.com has confirmed. As noted several weeks ago in the Elite section of PWInsider.com, there had been a push for Sting to be used at the 2/27 event, but as of last night, we are told those talks have died down. Hulk Hogan is slated to appear at that event on 2/27 as well.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

SI.com spoke with Dave Meltzer about the departures of George Barrios and Michelle Wilson and the health of the company going into Thursday’s investor’s call. Meltzer’s analysis includes the stats that the average age of a Raw and SmackDown viewer is 50 while NXT is 55. That compares to the average WWE viewer in 2000 being 23 ... The subject of AEW must be one that is increasing among the business community that is catching up to its impact. Once TNT renewed Dynamite, it was clear to see it isn’t a flash in the pan but here for the long haul. The impact on WWE’s business has been a big increase in talent expenses with those with deals coming making significantly more to stay, NXT going to USA has to be grouped with AEW’s influence and while it’s created more television revenue it’s also removed the WWE Network’s most consistent live weekly programming for those within the U.S. Conversely, those outside the U.S. must wait 24 hours to watch NXT so it does influence the worldwide and domestic subscriber base.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) are now the longest reigning WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. The duo has held the titles for 121 days, surpassing the reign of The IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce).

Originally Posted by Fightful

The Revival reportedly once again requested their release from WWE in late January, though Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder remain under contract at this time ...

Speaking on his Hall of Fame radio show, Booker T offered up the following advice for The Revival.

"If I could give them any advice, 'Take the money. Take what's behind door number one.' If they came to me and said, 'Hey Book, we're going to give you a million dollars a year. You're not going to win any titles. We'll give you TV time. A 15-year contract.' I'm gonna shut the hell up. I don't give a damn about no titles. Legacy and all that is okay. But if I had the choice of getting the money, and not working, I'm taking the money and I'm not gonna care about the legacy. I'm gonna take that $15 million and parlay that into 45 or 50. For me, it was about getting paid and parlaying professional wrestling into what I'm doing right now."

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE is making an attempt to crack down on backstage news, at least at the PC.

Last week, Wrestling Observer Newsletter ran a story noting that at a WWE Performance Center meeting, talent were told not to call out main roster talent. The report upset some involved at the WWE PC, and was addressed later in the week.

As it turns out the original meeting in question where the recommendation was handed out was at an orientation for new Performance Center recruits. The information was leaked shortly after that.

Wednesday ahead of the NXT television tapings, another meeting was held to instruct NXT talent to not talk to "dirt sheets." The talent we spoke to (naturally, since they're effectively talking to one) weren't keen on the message. They were also reminded that they need proof of health coverage, which may have motivated talent to contact us.

One source previously unfamiliar to Fightful in NXT said "they reminded me that I'm a contractor, then tried to tell me who I couldn't talk to, so here I am," before reiterating issues with crowding at the PC.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The new theme for [NWA] Power is ‘I’m Broken’ by Pantera that replaces ‘Into the Fire’ by Dokken

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Disney has released updated figures for its streaming platforms. ESPN+ grew exponentially and was listed at 6.6 million subscribers by the end of 2019 compared to 1.6 million subs at the end of 2018. It is believed the service received a big bump by being bundled alongside the Disney+ and Hulu for U.S. subscribers. Disney+ is currently at 26.5 subscribers after three months since its launch.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Cryme Tyme is "For The Culture."

GCW announced that the longtime tag team consisting of JTG and Shad Gaspard, who have wrestled together for more than a decade, will compete on the "For The Culture" event on April 3.

Originally Posted by Fignuts (Post 5319294)

Originally Posted by Observer

Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero & Amazing Red are getting an ROH Six-Man Tag Team title shot at Supercard of Honor XIV.

ROH has announced that Bandido, Flamita & Rey Horus will defend their Six-Man titles against Ospreay, Romero & Amazing Red at April's Supercard of Honor event. It's taking place at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida on Saturday, April 4.

Originally Posted by Observer

Independent wrestler Aja Perera (Aja Smith) has officially signed with WWE and joined the Performance Center as a referee.

Perera signing with WWE was first reported by Squared Circle Sirens. The news was then announced by WWE.com today, with them noting that Perera will be the first African-American full-time female referee in the company's history

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW has revealed this week's top-five rankings in their men's, women's, and tag team divisions:
Men's division --

Champion: Chris Jericho (0-0 singles record in 2020, 10-1-1 overall record)

1. Jon Moxley (3-0 singles record in 2020, 8-1-1 overall record)
2. Cody Rhodes (2-0 singles record in 2020, 9-3-1 overall record)
3. PAC (1-1 singles record in 2020, 6-5-1 overall record)
4. Kenny Omega (0-0 singles record in 2020, 13-5 overall record)
5. Sammy Guevara (2-1 singles record in 2020, 6-7 overall record)

Women's division --

Champion: Riho (2-0 singles record in 2020, 10-2 overall record)

1. Nyla Rose (2-1 singles record in 2020, 6-4 overall record)
2. Hikaru Shida (1-1 singles record in 2020, 6-4 overall record)
3. Kris Statlander (0-1 singles record in 2020, 4-3 overall record)
4. Britt Baker (1-1 singles record in 2020, 8-5 overall record)
5. Awesome Kong (1-0 singles record in 2020, 3-1 overall record)

Tag team division --

Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (3-0 tag team record in 2020, 13-5 overall record for Omega, 9-7 overall record for Page)

1. SCU (1-1 tag team record in 2020, 14-5 overall record for Scorpio Sky, 13-4 overall record for Frankie Kazarian
2. The Young Bucks (1-1 tag team record in 2020, 11-7 overall record for Nick Jackson, 11-6 overall record for Matt Jackson)
3. Santana & Ortiz (0-1 tag team record in 2020, 7-4 overall record)
4. The Dark Order (1-0 tag team record in 2020, 5-2 overall record)
5. Best Friends (1-1 tag team record in 2020, 6-8 overall record for Chuck Taylor, 7-11 overall record for Trent Barreta)

Originally Posted by Observer

CM Punk's next appearance on WWE Backstage has been officially confirmed for next week.

On last night's episode of the show, it was announced that Punk will be part of the Backstage panel next Tuesday. It was also revealed that Women's Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair will be the featured guest on next Tuesday's show.

Originally Posted by PWI

For those of you in the UK, NXT UK TV debuts tonight on Paramount Network UK.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE's trademark application for EC3 was abandoned on 1/25 due to not responding to a notice of initial refusal issued on 7/24 last year within the allowed 6 month period.

Incidentally, the refusal was because EC3 already had a registered trademark himself on 4/23 last year.

WWE, if they choose to, can revive their own application at a later date.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On a recent edition of The WrestlingINC Daily podcast, former NXT U.K. talent Jazzy Gabert joined the show. Jazzy recently requested her release from WWE and during the podcast, she opened up about what led to that decision. While speaking about her time on NXT UK, Jazzy stated that the money in NXT U.K. is not that good.

“This is also the thing, I just came out of the injury, right? And before my injury, I was in so much pain. I guess I was walking around with this really bad neck for a while but I didn’t know this because I thought, ‘Hey, I’m a wrestler. Of course I’m in pain.’ For me, it was freaking normal and then when I signed the contract in 2017 I think, they found out that I had this bad neck, then I had the surgery, and straight after the surgery, like the next day, there was zero pain. I was like, ‘Woah! What is this? I have no pain at all,’ and like 2018, the whole year, I was not in pain and then 2019, I signed a contract with WWE again and I’m hitting the gym, I’m having muscle pain and I’m going to the ring, my back is hurting again. I’m like, ‘Wow, I miss not being in pain.’ It was kind of strange for me. I love this business so much, but I love being pain-free too. So for me, it wasn’t really worth it. Don’t get me wrong, NXT UK, I see it’s improving if you’re all working hard, but, it was too much sacrifice for me I think for what I was getting out of there. It’s not a secret but the money is not that good there, you know? And I think if I would’ve made a little bit more money that my life would be a little bit more easier. Then, of course I could say, ‘Okay, come on. Let’s do it. It’s worth it.’ But, yeah, it was too many things. It was not just one thing. It was many things that made me feel like, ‘Okay, it’s not worth it.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Prior to WWE Backstage going on live on FS1 on February 4th, the guest of the night, Drew McIntyre participated in the pre-show Q&A and when he was asked about the “Broken Dreams” theme song, he thinks it would be cool to bring it back for his WrestleMania match with Brock Lesnar.

“Oh, for WrestleMania? Oh that’s different. I keep seeing the Broken Dreams thing everyday. For years I’ve seen this on social media and people ask me this. It doesn’t work for my character and I love the song too, but it’s a little too slow. The lyrics kind of match my story so that’s interesting so I think WrestleMania would be a really cool place for it, and it would be cool that the crowd would probably know the words since I assume everyone knows every single word because you tweet me so often about it. So yes, Broken Dreams at Mania would be awesome.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

As first reported by ‘Toy News International’, All Elite Wrestling action figures will be revealed at the New York toy fair on February 22nd. Wicked Cool Toys/Jazwares are behind the design of the action figures.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

While speaking with Scott Fishman of TV Insider, Jon Moxley talked about the story that he, Chris Jericho and AEW have been piecing together to build to their AEW World Title match at ‘Revolution’. Moxley made comparisons between AEW and WWE and talked about the differences between the two companies when it comes to telling stories.

“It’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s pro wrestling. That’s the kind of wrestling I enjoyed as a kid. That’s the thing, the difference for us is we don’t have to have 37 pay-per-views a year and 600 network specials every year. We have Dynamite every week but four or five pay-per-views a year. We can keep those high-quality, big matches for those. A big fight feel. I think some of that has been missing over the last few years when you have to rush through stories and car crash stuff and give away so much on TV. The gratifying part for me is that it’s so much easier. You don’t have to over-complicate things. The story is simple. You have professionals who know what they are doing, veteran guys. Sometimes you can take risks and try something out. Maybe it works or doesn’t. It’s always great to be willing to do that. The lack of 30 writers buzzing around with all this weird f—’in energy is the biggest difference. Instead of a 10-minute sports entertainment segment, at AEW I don’t have anyone bugging me with [a] 40-page script to memorize or drilled to me how it’s supposed to be done. It’s very stress-free when you just let guys do their jobs. It’s easier when you have more in command of the rudder of the ship. Better than having the wind blowing in 50 f—-’in directions.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin is ready to bring NXT UK to Ireland.

Devlin has exploded in popularity over the past few months, earning more opportunities on NXT UK and coming up with an NXT Cruiserweight Championship victory at Worlds Collide.

Speaking to Scott Fishman of TV Insider, Devlin stated that he believes NXT UK is great for the European scene and he hopes to expand the brand into Ireland.

“It’s really good for the UK scene. It has breathed life into us," he said. "To have the UK Performance Center as well and learn from the best minds in the business...NXT UK has grown so much in the last three years. I couldn’t have imagined we’d be here if you’d ask me three years ago. Maybe we can be a company or brand that tours across Europe and not just the UK. I’d love to see NXT UK TakeOver Dublin. There is talk of maybe going to Germany and other parts of Europe. I’d love to take the show on the road. It would be awesome for the brand.”

Originally Posted by Observer

Ratings are in for this weeks installment of the Wednesday night wars. AEW Dynamite got the win, averaging 928,000 viewers on TNT.

That viewership number was up 25 percent from last week.

With coverage of the impeachment hearings and Democratic primaries dominating the cable news ratings, Dynamite dropped to 11th in the 18-49 demo with a 0.36 rating, up six percent from last week.

NXT averaged 770,000 viewers, which was up eight percent from last Wednesday. In the demo, the episode drew a 0.22 rating. That number was even with last week, but NXT climbed slightly to 34th overall in the cable TV ratings ...

Miz and Mrs., which followed NXT on USA, averaged 475,000 viewers and a 0.20 rating. Those numbers were up from 437,000 viewers and a 0.18 rating for last week's season premiere but still well below what the show was doing when it aired after SmackDown.

Originally Posted by Observer

Prior to their investors' call Thursday morning, WWE released their 2019 Q4 numbers, showing 18% revenue growth to $322.8 million, good for their highest quarterly revenue in company history.

The reason for the increase was revenue from their new TV deals, offsetting lower revenue from their live events. Quarterly net revenue in Media increased to $264.6 million, up from Q3's $205.3 million. Year over year, Media net revenue increased to $743.1 million, up from 2018's $683.4 million.

Despite the increase, Wall Street didn't respond favorably as the stock was trading at $42.34 as of this writing, down $6.62 from Wednesday ...

A few quarterly notes from their release:

• WWE Network subscriptions dropped by 10% to 1.42 million. They are predicting a slight increase to 1.47 million for Q1 of 2020.

Quarterly and yearly notes for Live Events/Consumer Products/Network

• Quarterly live event revenue increased to $27.4 million, but was down from last year's $34.4 million. The lack of a supershow in Australia was blamed as well as less events ///
• Year over year, live event revenue fell to $125.6 million, down from $144.2 million in 2018. That was attributed to 56 fewer shows, lower average attendance, and the lack of an Australian supershow.
• Average North American attendance increased by 15% to 5800 with an average ticket price of $57.13.
• Average International attendance decreased to 4100 with a 30% average ticket price increase to $84.26 ...
• Yearly Network revenue was down to $184.6 million, down from $199.3 million in 2018.

Originally Posted by PWI

In today's WWE earnings report, it is interesting to note the company was not touting televison rights fees for WWE NXT on the USA Network, but noted that the company has taken on additional production costs for the series with it's second hour. There was no specific mention of NXT TV revenue in the earnings report at all. So, whatever revenue WWE is deriving from the series has been folded into somewhere else, not specifically noted.

Originally Posted by Fightful

On Thursday's fourth-quarter earnings call, Vince McMahon was asked about the transition of leadership process.

McMahon answered, "I think in terms of changing or reimagining our culture and the way we do business, it's going to be far more inclusive. Quite frankly, with that, our strong management team currently going forward, attracting world class individuals to our company. Who wouldn't want to work for WWE? I mean, come on! It's exciting."

Originally Posted by Fightful

Speaking on the WWE fourth quarter earnings call, Vince was asked about All Elite Wrestling and how the company may have changed WWE's content since it launched on TNT in October.

Vince replied, "AEW has not changed our content at all. It's all about our characters, storylines, and resolutions. It really hasn't changed our point of view in terms of what we present. We don't need more 'edgy' content. PG, one of the few programs out there that really is PG. As far as NXT, we're competing. NXT is competing on Wednesday night with AEW and doing extremely well. We're confident that NXT will continue on with success."

Vince previously referred to AEW's content as "blood and guts" on the second quarter 2019 earnings call last July.

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE's "Ruthless Aggression" era will be the subject of a new docuseries that's premiering on the WWE Network this month.

The company announced today that the debut episode of WWE Ruthless Aggression will be made available on the WWE Network on demand at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, February 16. New episodes will then be uploaded on demand every Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern starting on February 17.

WWE wrote that the series "picks up where WWE Network’s critically acclaimed Monday Night War docuseries left off, detailing the prolific, if turbulent, years that followed the Attitude Era, after WWE won the battle for Monday night supremacy and absorbed its top rival, WCW.

Originally Posted by PWI

The New York Times ran an article today covering a massive embezzlement scandal in the State of Mississippi involving a state auditor and former WWE developmental talent Brett DiBiase, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase, Brett DiBiase. According to the article, the former director of the state welfare agency and five others are being charged in one of the biggest embezzlement scandals in the history of the office. Allegedly, DiBiase was given funds to go to a drug treatment facility in Malibu that was earmarked for Mississippi's welfare programs. According to documents, DiBiase was allegedly given the money as payment for classes that he didn't teach for drug abuse.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Former 6-time WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett talked to SunSport about the lineage and importance of the Intercontinental Title in WWE:

“I’ve had this conversation with a lot of folks and it’s just a completely [different] generation now. It’s like getting a No.1 song way back, that was really something special. Now today, the methods of the distribution, it doesn’t quite carry the same cachet. That Intercontinental Title will always be that logical progression, steppingstone if you will, but nowadays we can pick up our phone and watch wrestling instantly. Years ago in WWF, and yes you had WCW and some other organizations, but there was only one main one and that’s what you watched. WCW had the U.S. Title and then others in Japan and Mexico that were steppingstones to a world championship. Nowadays due to the method of distribution, you can watch so much content that is original from independent promotions all across the world, so there are so many more belts and titles that, in essence, it brings the overall championship aura down. In WWE, you have the WWE Title and the Universal Championship that didn’t exist years ago. The I.C. Title has always been and always will be a unique belt with the lineage that goes with it. But it all depends on the champion and it always has. You are looking at the greatest of all-time, and do you know why I was the greatest of all-time? Because I told you that I’m the greatest of all-time. But it is just a different era.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Southpaw Regional Wrestling characters and the stage set-up will be included in the February 7th WWE 2K20 update.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Hosting a special NWO panel on the Chris Jericho Rock N Wrestling Rager At Sea: Part Deux, Scott Hall was telling the story of how he went to Vince and let him know about WCW's contract offer. Hall, as he's said many times, wanted to take the money and Vince wasn't offering the same amount

Chiming in, Jericho discussed his conversation with McMahon when he signed with AEW.

"I'm not in AEW because I was a rebel. I'm in AEW because Vince went, 'Go.' And then when I went, he went, 'You signed the contract?' 'Yeah.' 'Can you get out of it?' 'No. You told me to sign it.' He had the opportunity to stop it, like he did with [Scott Hall], which is very interesting to me. 23 years later, he made the same...I love Vince," he said.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The WWE had one major change and hints of a second one when it comes to business, which led to a major drop in the stock price ...

The second bit of news, perhaps related to the first, was Vince McMahon at the 2/6 conference call noting that they were in talks with other parties as it related to distribution of the former PPV events ...

There are a number of key players, obviously ESPN+ and DAZN, and another key player, Peacock, which is scheduled to launch this year. Sources in the industry have said that Peacock would look to WWE to be its key initial programming to draw subscribers from the start, very much as ESPN+ did with UFC. Instead of having to rely on declining network subscription money for big shows, they can get significantly money guaranteed, with the idea they can sell the PPV shows to a streaming service for $12 million to $13 million per monthly event ...

According to industry sources, Peacock is scheduled to kick off on 4/15 and would likely have about a $10 per month price point. That date would miss WrestleMania by ten days, which is by far WWE’s most valuable event of the year, and the one they leave tens of millions on the table in making it part of their own network package.

DAZN’s situation has changed due to how much money it has lost so far with so many gigantic deals, particularly when it comes to boxing content that subscription revenue can’t come close to covering. ESPN+, with all its growth, is also losing tons of money, as Disney announced losses of $693 million for the year between ESPN+, Hulu and start-up costs for Disney Plus ...

If this happens, it would mean a new direction for the network, like it has for Fight Pass. Depending on whether this would be just the 12 or more PPVs, or include Takeovers (more likely not) is to be determined. Like with UFC, the WWE Network may end up being a place for other smaller company content, like wXw, Evolve, Progress and OTT, which has been talked about for years. The latest plan was for a more expensive tier using that content, and perhaps others, but that launch has been delayed as well until all of this gets sorted out ...

Based on the price going around, it’s a great deal for WWE. But at some point realism will come into these deals and the overpaying based on streaming revenue it generates not being nearly what is being paid for, there will be a market correction. But right now, nobody knows what the long-term brings and all decisions are short-term.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE Network and PPV revenue fell from $46.8 million last year to $41.6 million this year. The word is that WWE is attempting to sell their PPVs rights for a number barely below the total revenue the network and PPV combined was generating at this pace, and with none of the costs past production of the shows.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Other media revenue went from $63.5 million to $56.1 million. This would be revenue from reality shows, video and theatrical releases, and mostly from Saudi Arabia. This would cover the first show of 2019 where the payment came in during October. It would also indicate that the payment for the second show has not come in yet. That would be why the total revenue for the year would not have broken $1 billion for the first time.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

The 1/29 head-to-head saw AEW do 828,000 viewers (1.39 viewers per home) and a 0.34 in 18-49 and NXT do 712,000 viewers (1.22 viewers per home) and a 0.22 in 18-49 ...

NXT was hurt by probably 10,000 in the average viewership by no longer having an overrun. It also led to the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament final with Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle vs. Zack Gibson & James Drake losing to the AEW main event of Chris Jericho & Santana & Ortiz vs. Private Party & Darby Allin by a 777,000 to 668,000 margin, since there’s probably a good 120,000 to 200,000 viewers who figured they could watch the end of the NXT main event after AEW ended ...

The number seems to indicate that AEW being taped last week had very little to do with the lower rating from the week before, since this was live and did a lower number than the taped show. It also seemed to show that the show on the cruise didn’t hurt or help much ...

AEW opened with 911,000 viewers and 476,000 in 18-49 with Jon Moxley doing an interview and being confronted by the Inner Circle. NXT opened at 755,000 viewers and 266.000 in 18-49 for Finn Balor vs. Trent Seven. Basically the luster Balor had from behind a main roster star in NXT has dissipated with AEW nearly doubling him in 18-49.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Both AEW and NXT showed strong increases in viewers on 2/5, although most out of the 18-49 demo, and the gap in AEW’s favor widened even though WWE heavily hyped its show with commercials all over Raw and pushing the first Charlotte Flair appearance on NXT.

AEW, built largely around Cody taking ten lashes from MJF did 928,000 viewers (1.43 viewers per home, one of the best of any wrestling show this TV season) and a 0.36 in 18-49, up 12 percent in viewers from last week and six percent in the key demo.

NXT did 770,000 viewers (1.25 viewers per home) and 0.22 in 18-49, an increase of 8.1 percent but staying the same in 18-49.

In 18-49, AEW had 468,000 viewers to 288,000 for NXT. In all groups within that demo, the edge went to AEW. In women 18-34, it was 56,000 to 32,000. In men 18-34 it was 101,000 to 64,000. In women 35-it was 90,000 to 64,000. In men 35-49, it was 221,000 to 128,000 ...

The key component in this story relates to Flair ... Thing can change, but week one indicated Flair did increase NXT’s audience with older viewers, but AEW increased more with younger viewers ...

For Miz & Mrs., they drew a very different audience from NXT, much younger and far more women, particularly teenage girls and less than half of AEW and only 40 percent of NXT when it comes to over 50.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Smackdown on 1/31 did a 1.50 rating and 2,422,000 viewers (1.35 viewers per home), almost identical with the 1.52 rating and 2,448,000 viewers the prior week. I’d call that good because on the West Coast, the show got hurt by the giant numbers the first Los Angeles Lakers game since Kobe Bryant’s death. It started at 10 p.m. Eastern meaning it only went against the West Coast feed ...

Smackdown did an 0.7 in 18-49 ...

Last year on the same weekend, FOX did a 1.0 in 18-49 and 4,185,000 viewers, so they are down 30 percent in 18-49 and 42.1 percent in viewers.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Rusev has been off television due to a contract dispute

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Shayna Baszler will be a regular on Raw shortly. She is leaving NXT and this has been planned for a long time, probably close to a year so the thing about not wanting to transfer stars in NXT to the main roster and give the idea NXT is developmental or a stepping stone rather than a third brand doesn’t apply to her.

For Angel Garza, the story is different. He is considered an NXT guy, but he will be on Raw for now as a fill-in for Andrade. It keeps Carrillo in a program and keeps Vega on television. There is no decision long-term, as he could stay and probably should stay on Raw because the guy is loaded with charisma either as a face or a heel, and he can go in the ring. But he was not a scheduled call-up and those on the NXT roster aren’t allowed to be called up right now unless it’s something planned long-term

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Regarding social media, the issues with Vince McMahon and Matt Riddle are due to his social media posts and challenges. Brock Lesnar doesn’t like him for it and Lesnar has tremendous pull with Vince. Vince also sees him as an outside guy and feels Riddle has no respect for the hierarchy of the business by challenging Goldberg and Lesnar.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

New Japan Pro Wrestling ran the first two of three major New Beginning shows this past weekend, as well as finished its weakest attended foreign tour since its popularity comeback in the U.S. ...

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa regained the IWGP tag team titles beating Juice Robinson & David Finlay on 2/1 at the Coca Cola Roxy in Atlanta ...

The idea was for Tonga & Loa to next do a program with Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi, but that depends on Ibushi’s condition. Ibushi is currently out of action with Mallory Weiss Syndrome, which is serious but generally not a long lasting condition and he is still booked for the 2/9 show in Osaka Jo Hall

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There is still talk about a summer show in Madison Square Garden. It’s not been announced but they did have an August date talked about a few weeks ago. It is close, but you still have the WWE component that at one point got the show shut down last year. The date wasn’t finalized in time to announce it at the Dome on 1/5. But because New Japan did sellout in one day the first time, MSG did not close the door on them for booking even against the wishes of WWE. There are those who think they can sell out again because the first went clean on day one ... Plus, while they did sell out instantly, the secondary market was weak because so many bought tickets with the idea of Omega defending the IWGP title, since he was champion at the time the tickets were put on sale. New Japan is going with the idea the sellout was the popularity of New Japan and the drawing power of Okada in particular and that it can be pulled off again.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Joey Janela’s Spring Break show on 4/3 at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, FL, which is the Friday night before WrestleMania, is looking at trying to sell upwards of 4,000 tickets, making it the biggest indie crowd of the year. The first major matches announced are Orange Cassidy vs. Minoru Suzuki and Tony Deppan vs. Alex Shelley. They’ve also announced Will Ospreay and Great Muta

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

There are issues behind-the-scenes between MLW and Impact. MLW claims Impact tried to break up the NOAH/MLW relationship as well as the AAA/MLW relationship. The latter wasn’t successful since Konnan and Laredo kid were on the show

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

Three other names that have been talked about as being part of the TNA show bringing back talent from the past are Mike Tenay (asked but right now I’d say more likely not happening), Dixie Carter and the other guy they are going back-and-forth about asking is Vince Russo. There seems to be the idea that if they bring in Russo, that it would stir up so much negativity that people would for sure know the date and time of the show and that it would help business

The angle with Ace Austin hitting on Trey Miguel’s mom has been dropped. The woman who played Miguel’s mom actually worked a regular job for the company but she’s no longer working here

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE stock has not reacted well to any of the news following Thursday. On Friday, the stock was down 4.4% and closed at $42.53 after opening at $44.85.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

An interesting story floating around on Friday comes from Needham analyst Laura Martin following WWE’s investor’s call. Martin, who is a regular on the investor’s calls, believes that Amazon securing the streaming rights would put the giant in a great position to eventually buy the entire WWE. Martin believes that WWE’s programming is far more valuable due to a built-in audience that other start-up series don’t have the benefit of. Martin has placed a ‘buy’ rating for the stock given its level it has dipped to, which she adds makes the WWE more attractive to buy versus several months ago when the stock was significantly higher. On his radio show today, Dave Meltzer said that Amazon Prime is not interested in WWE.

Originally Posted by Observer

One-half of the Raw Tag Team Champions has undergone a slight name change.

Post Wrestling reported today that Buddy Murphy will now be promoted as just "Murphy" by WWE. The name change has also been confirmed on WWE.com.

Post Wrestling wrote that they "learned of the alteration through several sources in the company that were notified of the change moving forward."

Originally Posted by Observer

On Friday, AEW announced they are partnering with the Atlanta chapter of the American Heart Association, giving donators a pair of tickets to Dynamite on February 19th.

February is American Heart Month, designed to raise awareness for heart disease, the number one cause of death for men and women in the U.S. From now through February 14th, donations for $50 or more to the AHA's Atlanta chapter will earn two tickets to Dynamite.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WrestleCon has announced that Kenny Omega will be signing autographs and available for photo ops on Friday, April 3rd at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

Originally Posted by PWI

Arizona Central is reporting that former WWF and WCW star Emmet Bryan Clark (professionally known as The Nightstalker, Wrath, Adam Bomb and as Bryan Clark over the course of his wrestling career),55, has plead not guilty to a series of drug related charges in the State of Arizona.

Clark has been charged with conspiracy, illegal control of enterprise, transporting or selling narcotics, drug possession and possessing a weapon during a drug offense for incidents that took place in January 2019 and April 2019.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office declined to give comment on the case to the Arizona Republic.

Clark's attorney released a statement that "The police report contains alleged facts that have been grossly misconstrued and are incorrect" and that Clark "has been targeted because of his notoriety and acquaintances."

Originally Posted by PWI

The resurrected XFL, owned by Vince McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment, officially launches this weekend.

There will be four games this weekend:

*Tomorrow, Saturday 2/8 The DC Defenders host the Seattle Dragons at 2 PM EST, a game that will air on ABC.

*A second game, featuring The Los Angeles Wildcats at the Houston Roughnecks will air 5 PM EST on FOX.

*Sunday 2/9, The New York Guardians will host the Tampa Bay Vipers on FOX at 2 PM on FOX.

*The St. Louis BattleHawks will be hosted by The Dallas Renegades on ESPN at 5 PM EST.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Ring of Honor has signed Australian wrestler Adam Brooks (Adam Wilmot). He has been wrestling for a decade and is the current heavyweight champion for Melbourne City Wrestling He had a busy 2019 wrestling all over the world including for Rev Pro, Progress, MLW, The Crash, and PWG.

Originally Posted by Fightful

With several EVPs, many wondered early on how much influence The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and others coupled with the fact that founder Tony Khan had the "final say." As it turns out, things have expanded well beyond that, as reported on our Fightful Select service this week.

The Fightful Select update read as follows.

I'm told that people in AEW have been having fun working on the creative aspects of the Hangman Page storyline. Tony Khan specifically has evolved from being the person with the final say to a person developing more stories and ideas creatively of his own, as well as being more outspoken about other people's ideas. Thus far, we've heard that his creative input has been received positively from people on the roster. That Hangman Page story specifically was one that he's worked closely on and contributed to heavily.

Kenny Omega is credited with the idea of turning Britt Baker heel internally, and the promo lines about Tony Schiavone's job were said to have come from Tony Khan.

Originally Posted by Fightful

New Japan Pro-Wrestling will reportedly return to Madison Square Garden at some point in 2020.

According to Mike Killam at ProWrestling.com, NJPW is targetting August for its return to MSG. Super J-Cast reports that the most common date relayed to them was Saturday, Aug. 22 with Killam noting that is the weekend NJPW officials have been pushing for, but as of now nothing is set in stone.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw increased eight percent from last week's low level with a show that did the best job of keeping the audience in a long time.

Raw averaged 2.34 million viewers, not far off the 2.40 million for the show the day after the Royal Rumble. But more important was the ratings pattern where for the first time since August 26, the audience grew in the second hour. This isn't unusual during daylight savings time but it is very unusual during standard time, particularly in the winter ...

The show was down five percent from the same week last year ...

In particular, the big winner was Angel Garza, whose match with Cedric Alexander was the high point of the show.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.40 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.41 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.20 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Raw was up 8% in total viewership with an average of 2,337,000 viewers on the USA Network. The show was likely assisted by avoiding the New Hampshire primary which takes place tonight while the Iowa primary was on Monday night last week ...

The key demographics saw growth across the board. In the 18-49 demo, Raw did a 0.80 up 19% from last week’s figure placing Raw as the top cable program on Monday night.

Adults 25-54 were also up big with an increase of 24% from last week followed by males and females 18-49 that jumped 18% each. There were no declines among the key demos, although adults over 50 didn’t budge with a 1.02 just as they did last week.

Originally Posted by Observer

Matt Riddle did a post-match promo after the NXT Las Vegas house show main event on Saturday and talked about how he was fired by Dana White (they were at The Pearl, a building UFC often runs), how some people don't like him, and that he would be the guy who retires Brock Lesnar. From what I'm told, NXT has given him permission to follow up on the Lesnar stuff.

Originally Posted by Observer

Wells Fargo has cut its target price for WWE stock from $80 to $36 due to all the concerns. The stock closed [Monday] today at $42.05 per share.

Originally Posted by Observer

The guy who King Corbin poured the drink on Friday night on Smackdown was Markus Mack, the promoter of All Pro Wrestling in Northern California.

Originally Posted by PWI

Fale Dojo (Auckland, NZ) is now an official part of the New Japan Pro Wrestling training system. Going forward internationally, the Dojo will now be known as NJPW New Zealand Dojo, however, locally, we will maintain our Fale Dojo brand.

Originally Posted by SESCoops.com

On the latest episode of his Jim Cornette Experience podcast, Jim Cornette goes into detail regarding his former business with the NWA. During the discussion, Cornette confirmed that the NWA was originally hoping for its programming to land on the WWE Network.

“The NWA show was what they were thinking was going to end up on the (WWE) Network,” said Jim Cornette.

“Then (Lagana) started talking about ‘well, we’re going to do a TV show,” Cornette said. “I said ‘what do you mean, Dave?’ He said ‘well, we’re going to start doing TV.’ I said ‘what would it be on?’ and he said ‘well we’re not sure yet but we think it might be on the WWE Network.”

“He did have meetings unless he was just bald-faced lying to me,” Cornette continued. Cornette then said he was skeptical about this actually happening.

“I said ‘do you honestly believe that the WWF is going to put an NWA television show on their network?'” Cornette said he asked Lagana.

“Finally, he called and said ‘Well, we’re going to do it on YouTube,'” Cornette said of his conversation with Lagana.

“Originally the NWA show was going to be on the WWE Network and then that didn’t work out and they put it on YouTube,” Cornette continued.

Originally Posted by Observer

The UFC’s Jon Jones told Sports Illustrated that he thinks it’s “inevitable” he’ll end up working with WWE in some form:

“I think it’s inevitable. I’ve always respected WWE, and I feel like the sports can be so similar.”

“I have the size and athleticism and the following to transition over really well. To get the opportunity to just show up, even as a special guest, would be a dream come true.”

Originally Posted by PWI

Interesting to note that for the week ending 2/2, MLW Fusion on Freesports brought in 16,8000 viewers, beating WWE NXT on BT Sport 2, which garnered 12,600 viewers that week.

Originally Posted by PWI

Davey Boy Smith Jr. announced today he would be debuting in All Japan Pro Wrestling, competing in the 2020 Champion Carnival tournament:

Very excited to announce that I will be participating in the 2020 All Japan Pro-Wrestling Champion Carnival! My father Davey Boy Smith, and also Dynamite Kid and Johnny Smith once competed in the same league. I plan on winning this one! ???????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/rMn9WCHZ1c
— Davey Boy Smith Jr. (@DBSmithjr) February 11, 2020

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Neilsen has conducted a study that shows in the fourth quarter of 2019, 19% of viewers watching TV spent that time on a streaming service. The study doesn’t include those watching on tablets or mobile devices and only monitored streaming on televisions. Of the streaming services, Netflix leads the way with 31% with connected-TV viewing followed by YouTube, Hulu, and Amazon. The study noted that 91% of the people that responded subscribe to a streaming service with 96% among those 18-34. It notes that 30% of consumers in the United States subscriber to three or more services.

Among adults over the age of 18, average daily viewing for live and time-shifted programs on TV fell 7% in the third quarter of 2019 at 3 hours and 56 minutes per day. Time spent watching connected-TV devices increased 17% to 55 minutes per day while viewing on smartphones increased 45% to sixteen minutes per day and viewing on computers stayed the same at seven minutes per day.

Originally Posted by Fightful

NWA's The Circle Squared competition series has a premiere date.

During the most recent episode of Powerrr, Sean Mooney revealed that the show, which will see wrestlers perform in front of an audience in order to secure a contract to compete for the NWA, will premiere on February 18 at 6:05 p.m. ET. Mooney, who will host the show, also mentioned that Powerrr will take a one-week hiatus as a result and return on February 25.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Speaking with Wrestling Observer Radio, Cody Rhodes was asked about a second show being added to AEW's TNT schedule and admitted that although no formal discussions have happened with Warner Media, they are prepared for when the trigger is pulled on the third hour ...

One of the formats being considered would center directly around the younger men and women of AEW, saying it's hard enough for established talent to get on TV every week, and this would provide the company with an avenue to highlight countless up-and-coming talents with whom the audience is not yet entirely familiar ...

"Initially there was talk that it’ll be like Dark but on another channel. I don’t think it’ll be like Dark. I think it’s gonna be its own animal, and we would want that. We would want to test ourselves,” Cody said.

The conversation then pivoted towards secondary championships and when one might be introduced into AEW. Cody acknowledged that it is being discussed, but cautions that they're moving slowly.

"I think we have an idea that's different than anything that's been done and I would just hope that everyone remains patient. Their yearning, their lust for that type of belt - championship - I think will be satiated in 2020. Again, I'm not saying there's a mid-card title, because if I was to say that there is a mid-card title coming to AEW, Nick Jackson would superkick my skull clean off my head. We're moving slow. It's something that the EVP's all have to agree on, but there is a really great idea in gestation. There's a great idea out there. Hopefully something that maybe (will) come along with the third-hour news (as) that kind of becomes more prominent," Cody said.

Originally Posted by Observer

This week's episode of WWE Backstage drew the show's second-best viewership since it premiered in its regular time slot.

Backstage averaged 169,000 viewers on FS1 last night, which was up 74 percent from the 97,000 viewers it did last week. The rating in the 18-49 demo was a 0.06, up from last week's 0.05.

This week's Backstage began at 11:15 p.m. Eastern time and had a strong lead-in. The second and final day of this year's Westminster Dog Show averaged 1.089 million viewers on FS1 and did a 0.17 rating in 18-49.

Originally Posted by Observer

Teddy Hart, former MLW roster member, frequent indie wrestler, and New Hart Foundation member, was arrested Tuesday in Richmond, Virginia, on drug related charges.

The 40-year-old born Edward Annis was charged with possession of a Schedule III narcotic (a Class 1 misdemeanor) and possession with intent to sell or distribute. According to PW Insider, Hart was incarcerated at the Richmond County Jail after being booked at midnight. It's unknown if he has been released on bail, but he does have an April 23rd court date.

Schedule III drugs include codeine, anabolic steroids, hydrocodone, and others in that family.

Hart faces up to a year in jail and up to a $2500 fine for the misdemeanor while the possession with intent charge also carries jail time of between 1-10 years in prison or up to a year in jail with a fine to not exceed $2500.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ring of Honor is replacing their Women's title with a new championship.

Following the departure of champion Kelly Klein at the end of last year, ROH has revealed how they're handling their Women's title situation. A tournament to crown a new champion will begin at Quest for Gold in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, April 24. The show is taking place at the 2300 Arena and will feature eight first-round matches in the tournament.

The winner of the tournament will receive the ROH Women's World Championship, with that title replacing the Women of Honor World Championship.

Originally Posted by PWI

Paul Levesque met with reporters on a conference call this morning in advance of Sunday's Takeover Portland event ...

The first question came from Jason Powell. He asked about why NXT isn’t doing as well as AEW in the key demos on Wednesday nights. He said he think it’s all about the long game. What they have to do is get to the people in the younger demos. He said when you are promoted and viewed in the younger demos, those are the people that you will attract. He said that the NXT numbers are similar to a basic USA number. The long game is building up the brand. He said that they have proven the product in a hardcore, wrestling action sense. Now they need to start add in different things, entertainment wise. They have established that it’s great wrestling. Now they can work on other aspects. He said he is happy with the show and its trajectory and now they have to go in the direction they wanted to go ...

Why wasn’t there a Halftime Heat this year? Did it sneak up on you?

He said they were aware of when the Super Bowl was. He said FOX is their partner now and you don’t do that. Last year the timing was right. This year it wasn’t. He said he was glad they didn’t. He was at the Halftime Show live and it was spectacular. It was mind boggling how they did it.

Has Shayna Baszler officially moved to Raw?

That will play out. He said that Becky’s rise has been insane but you still need great opponents. He hopes it turns into something massive for both of them. Right now, he looks at it like sports teams making deals. He said right now he sees her as an NXT talent until they make a deal for her to go somewhere else ...

On the potential of taking NXT TV on the road, HHH said Full Sail is one of the most valuable partners they have in WWE. He sees it as more of a family relationship more than a business relationship. He said he couldn’t even comment on whether they have a contractual relationship. Their partnership doesn’t just train talent but producers and directors doing Wrestlemania now who cut their teeth in Florida. They have camera guys who are doing that now who started in Full Sail. The amount of stuff that they do that we see and don’t see – and the people who are inside the gears of the machine are from inside in Full Sail. They aren’t just renting a facility every Wednesday. Full Sail is family and part of that partnership. They will always do what’s best for business if there’s an opportunity.

He noted that there’s a week coming up where they can’t run Full Sail that week because Full Sail had a prior commitment so NXT will be on the road that week. He reiterated each side is super committed and will help each other.

On the Matt Riddle-Brock Lesnar story, Vince McMahon has never issued his disapproval of what was said by Riddle. There was a conversation between Riddle and Lesnar and that’s between them. They are grown adults and whatever they decided amongst themselves is what it is. Sometimes he reads things and wonders if it’s a shoot or a work but he’s entertained by it. He said that it is what it is. Riddle is an incredibly talented performer. He has his own viewpoints and that’s his own thing. He said he thinks Brock probably thinks don’t write checks you can’t cash and he thinks Riddle, in his mind, is writing checks he can cash.

Originally Posted by PWI

ESPN featured a piece on WWE's media day yesterday in Los Angeles to promote Wrestlemania 37.

In the piece, it was noted that Roman Reigns pushed the idea of himself vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania in 2021, commenting, ""Hey, DJ, check it out. Not bad, right? I mean, the weather is good. Everyone is always talking about a dream match, me and him. First of all, we're family, so it's all love. If there was gonna be an event for him to compete in, to perform in, a venue to hold that mass scale of attention he's gonna bring? It's right here in your backyard. You ain't gotta go far."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

While appearing on the Swerve City Podcast with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Teasy and AEW’s Big Swole, Breeze opened up about his days in WWE’s developmental brand. He talked about how he was also cutting it close when it came to being let go from the company and later revealed that he and former WWE star Big Cass were supposed to be fired from WWE at the conclusion of ESPN’s E:60 documentary about NXT that released in 2015. Breeze accredited him and Cass not being fired to both men coming up with creative ideas for their respective characters.

“I get brought into a room, and it was me, Corey Graves, Xavier Woods, Colin Cassady [Big Cass] and somebody else… Adam Rose, and we’re told that we’re doing an ESPN thing. We’re doing an E:60, and so of course we’re all like, ‘Awesome. This is great, this is really cool.’ So they follow us around, they do some interviews, they do all this other stuff. Little did I know, I find this out after. After Tyler Breeze comes into existence, and I end up being on NXT and it took like a year or whatever it was… after I came into existence and Cassady, the same thing. Enzo and Cass went together and they became a thing. Hunter’s in front doing the post-NXT chat and he’s talking to everybody, and he goes, ‘Alright, just so you know, on this E:60, there was supposed to be guys that made it and guys that did not make it.’ Me and Colin Cassady were supposed to be the guys that did not make it and got fired at the end of this thing. We had no idea. We thought it was like, ‘Hey, these are the guys we want to showcase.’ Not the case whatsoever. We were supposed to be fired. Hunter’s telling everybody that we were supposed to be fired and now because we came up with stuff, our job is saved. Six months before that, I’m about to get fired again so, we do the E:60 thing. I guess they’re supposed to fire me but they can’t fire me until the episodes come up.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

All Elite Wrestling Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes appeared on Wrestling Observer Radio ...

While talking about storylines, Rhodes said that he specifically likes to have things planned out six months in advance. There are things that come up that alter certain people’s timing but with him, Chris Jericho and those alike, things are mapped out months in advance.

“I’d say not a full year but maybe six months. Not everybody likes to talk about six months from now. It’s not the conversation that everyone wants to talk about now and this week, but I think one of the keys to what we do is gonna be having an advanced plan and to be honest, some of the stuff we do, have kind of a thought process [of] one year — ‘What does this look like?’ For example, Double Or Nothing. Not this year but what will Double Or Nothing look like next year. I think we’ve gotta stay to that and we haven’t had any signs that we won’t be able to accomplish that. With a weekly show, we’ve kept it at six months at minimum for certain stuff. There’s certain guys that flow a little bit more improvisationally, and move like maybe every — they’ve got four weeks mapped out. Guys like Jericho and myself I guess, who I got it mapped out pretty far in advance. That’s a part of what I was telling you. Again, real inside baseball here but, this is the Observer but, I like to have everything well mapped out for me. It just gives me something to work for, and something to flow off of and it’s wrestling. Stuff can change, at any minute, at any second. I’m used to that. I’m used to change. It’s nice to have that structure. That’s a big thing. AEW is the renegade wild company but, it’s amazing how much real structure exists here and I love the fact that that’s the way it is.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Charly Caruso posted on her Instagram story that she’s going to be working on an official XFL show.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On the most recent edition of Eric Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast, he talked about the creative control that Paul Heyman really has in WWE and explained that no one truly has creative control and people on the outside have a misconception that Heyman and/or Bruce Prichard are running things.

“There’s one guy who has creative control. It’s not Paul Heyman. I hate to break your bubble, and I love Paul by the way. Conrad, you and I talked about Paul a little bit when I visited you last week and I shared with you how highly I regard Paul’s creative abilities and things like that so this is not meant to be any kind of half-assed attempt to take a shot or anything like that, but Paul Heyman doesn’t have creative control, and anybody that thinks he does is kidding themselves. I know Paul doesn’t, and neither does anybody else. One guy has creative control, and we all know who that is. So when I said, while I was there, I didn’t have creative control, I was being honest. I didn’t, because one man did. Paul Heyman doesn’t, Eric Bischoff didn’t. Nobody who follows in either my footsteps including Bruce Prichard — you know how much I love Bruce… or Paul Heyman, have creative control.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

Kurt Angle is very impressed by the NXT product but still feels that it can't be said NXT is a better product than Raw or SmackDown.

Speaking to Sportskeeda, the 2017 WWE Hall of Famer says he is very impressed by what his former rival, Triple H, has put together but to him, it is still the training ground for one of WWE's more traditional television shows.

“I think NXT is a great brand. I think Triple H has done an incredible job with that. But you know what? It is still the 'training ground' for RAW and SmackDown,” Angle said. “These guys might have a little more leeway than the guys on RAW and SmackDown. They get more time in their matches than the guys on RAW and SmackDown. If you watch any NXT TakeOver, every match is 30 minutes. Guys and girls on RAW and SmackDown, they don't get that kind of time so I wouldn't say they are the better product, I would say they have more freedom on what they want to do.

"But when you get up to the big show, you've got to make the time cues and you've got to listen to your boss, you have to do things specifically and I don't think that NXT has to do that. That's probably the reason why a lot of the guys want to stay there and I don't blame them for that - but would I say it's a better product? No, not by any means but I would say that they are doing an excellent job and Triple H has done an unbelievable job of making that an entity. Basically a product of its own. It could survive on its own. So it has become huge and there are a lot of fans that follow it.”

Originally Posted by Observer

TJPW announced that Yuka Sakazaki will miss their March 1 card at KFC Hall due to scheduling reasons. AEW Revolution takes place a day prior

Originally Posted by Conspiracy Victim Vito (Post 5320842)

Jushin Liger and The Bella Twins rumored for the HOF

Originally Posted by Observer

Ratings are in for Wednesday's installment of the Wednesday Night Wars -- with AEW Dynamite taking the night with an average viewership of 817,000 to NXT's 757,000.

However, the Dynamite number was down 12 percent from last week while NXT dipped by just two percent.

In the 18-49 demo, AEW averaged a 0.3 rating, down 17 percent from last week, good for a 10th place finish on cable. NXT was up nine percent in the demo, averaging a 0.24, putting them 21st.

The NXT demo number represents one of their best showings since their first few weeks, and the gap of 0.6 between the two was the closest the WWE property has been since December 18 when they beat Dynamite.

In addition to people over 50, NXT also had a slight win in females 18-49 with a 0.18 to 0.16 advantage over AEW. Per usual, AEW's strongest category was men 18-49, where they had a 0.41 to 0.28 advantage ...

Miz and Mrs, which immediately followed NXT on USA, was down four percent this week, averaging 457,000 viewers. That was good for 49th on cable in the 18-49 demo with a 0.16 rating.

Originally Posted by Observer

The former El Hijo del Fantasma is set to make his NXT debut this weekend.

WWE announced last night that Jorge Bolly (formerly known as El Hijo del Fantasma and King Cuerno) will make his debut for the promotion at NXT's house show in Fort Pierce, Florida this Saturday (February 15) ...

It was officially announced in September 2019 that Bolly had signed with WWE. Dave Meltzer reported last week that the reason there had been no mentions of Bolly since he signed with WWE was because he had blown out his knee. Meltzer wrote that Bolly was expected to be cleared to return imminently.

WWE has also revealed that Tino Sabbatelli, who suffered a torn pec in 2018, is set for NXT's house show in Tampa, Florida this Friday night.

Originally Posted by PWI

Current NWA Women’s Champion and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling International Princess Champion Thunder Rosa noted on social media that she was the victim of a hit and run accident while in their car yesterday and is selling some of her gear to help finance the car repairs.

Hey guys, yesterday I was involved in a hit and run accident a d to raise money to fix my car, I'm selling different gears! DM
Me or email me at thunderrosa22@gmail.com
Thanks for your support! pic.twitter.com/g4Q5xRdh04
— Thunder Rosa (@thunderrosa22) February 13, 2020

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who have asked, the creative direction within the company since the onset of 2020 has primarily been Tony Khan. The EVPs all have a say in what they are doing and are trusted, but all of the current storylines and pushes are Khan edicts and he's been very hands on with laying out exactly what he wants out of each segment in recent weeks. Chris Jericho remains very involved with working to get the newer stars in the company over.

The Double or Nothing pre-sale today was extremely strong and all signs are the PPV will sell out when it goes on sale tomorrow officially.

As of today, Jeff Cobb is only booked for next Wednesday's Dynamite in Atlanta. His status with Ring of Honor and New Japan remains unchanged. As we reported yesterday, he is not signed to anyone and can work anywhere he wants.

With her win last night, Nyla Rose becomes the first Native American to win a women's title that I can recall in recent times as well as the first transgender athlete to be crowned a Women's Champion in the United States that we are publicly aware of ...

New Japan star Chase Owens was backstage visiting last night

Originally Posted by PWI

There has been talk recently of adding some independent promotions to the Impact+ streaming service.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

We were able to see a quarter-hour breakdown of last Friday’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown that featured Bill Goldberg’s appearance to challenge The Fiend for a Universal title match.

The show peaked in the first segment with the return of ‘The Dirt Sheet’ with The Miz and John Morrison, who was confronted by the New Day with an average of 2,657,000 viewers ...

9 – 9:15 pm increased by 125,000 viewers to 2,634,000 viewers for Roman Reigns attacking King Corbin followed by Bill Goldberg’s satellite interview and Firefly Fun House segment and the locker room segment with Daniel Bryan and Heath Slater.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Metro chatted with Alexa Bliss about the song that ‘Bowling For Soup’ created about her and Bliss stated that she would love if they were able to play the song live for her entrance at WrestleMania 36 if she’s on the card.

“I mean, I would love that. Any opportunity to be able to have my favorite band playing a song about me at WrestleMania would be incredible. I don’t know what I’m doing at WrestleMania, but it’s definitely something I’m going to throw out into the universe.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Chris Van Vliet conducted an interview with NWA President Billy Corgan. During their conversation, Corgan revealed that NWA is in discussions about doing some live touring shows.

“It was always heavy TV production and let’s see how it goes but our thing was, we will pivot from being a TV production first to a live touring [show] and people always ask, ‘When are you gonna start touring?’ And we’re in discussions right now to start doing live touring events.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson hosted a Q&A session for the latest edition of the Grilling JR podcast. Jim Ross mentioned that he ran into Mickie James at an airport recently. Mickie is married to NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. Ross said that he would love to have Aldis in AEW.

“Nick Aldis is a good hand, man. Nick Aldis is a hell of a hand. I wish we had him in AEW. I’m sure any promotion [wishes] they had Nick Aldis because he’s that good.”

One of the questions that was presented to Jim Ross was who will he pass the torch to after he decides to step away from the AEW commentary booth and he said Excalibur. Ross said that both he and Tony Schiavone agreed to pass on any knowledge that they have to Excalibur so he can thrive in his role.

“Excalibur… does a good job. Tony [Schiavone] and I both have made a commitment to share any knowledge we have, anything he wants to hear with him because, somewhere down the road, he should be the voice of AEW. But I’m not quite ready to step aside right now and neither is Tony. But we’re actually having a great time. Traveling with Tony from time to time. We did a show in Huntsville [Alabama] a couple weeks ago, a week ago. He’s [Tony Schiavone] an old woman,” Ross joked. “I love him though. I finally convinced Tony Khan how valuable Tony Schiavone would be if he was on our team and all the things he could do for us, and that was one of the best hires Tony Khan has made is getting Schiavone back in the game, and I’m so glad he’s on our team but Excalibur’s evolving, learning. He’s never done a national broadcast. He was doing very inexpensive, little streaming shoots on PWG. So he’s like a lot of our guys we have in the locker room. He’s new, he’s green and he’s learning but he’s gonna be really good.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

AJ Styles could potentially have a big match at WrestleMania this spring.

According to a report from WrestleZone, Styles is currently planned to face The Undertaker at this year's WrestleMania, taking place on April 5 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Originally Posted by Observer

Flamita has been pulled from two upcoming Ring of Honor shows due to injury.

In this week's edition of his Eck's Files column for ROH's website, Kevin Eck wrote that Flamita suffered a torn meniscus while teaming with Bandido against The Briscoes at Free Enterprise. Flamita won't be able to wrestle at Bound By Honor in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday, February 28 or Gateway to Honor in St. Louis, Missouri on Saturday, February 29 ...

ROH didn't announce a timetable for when Flamita will be returning from his injury.

Originally Posted by PWI

The New York Post ran an article today noting that WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase's non-profit religious organization tHE Heart of David Ministries reportedly received more than $2.1 million in welfare from the state of Mississippi after his son Brett DiBiase began working for the State.

The organization had received just $5,000 in grants in 2013, but pulled in $271,000 in welfare money, the same year Brett was hired as a senior official at the Mississippi Department of Human Services. DiBiase’s group received as much as $900,000 one year.

The New York Times ran an article on 2/6 covering a massive embezzlement scandal in the State of Mississippi involving a state auditor and former WWE developmental talent Brett DiBiase. According to that article, the former director of the state welfare agency and five others are being charged in one of the biggest embezzlement scandals in the history of the office. Allegedly, Brett DiBiase was given funds to go to a drug treatment facility in Malibu that was earmarked for Mississippi's welfare programs. According to documents, DiBiase was allegedly given the money as payment for classes that he didn't teach for drug abuse.

Now, questions have been raised about money directed to DiBiase Sr.'s organization, especially since, as The Post reported, "The state of Mississippi denied more than 98 percent of individual welfare applicants, while giving more than $2 million to DiBiase’s foundation."

Originally Posted by PWI

Kevin Ku, who was trained by Brian Fury, has signed a Major League Wrestling contract and will debut in April in Chicago.

LA Park Jr, LA Park’s youngest son, will soon debut in MLW.

There have been some reports floating around that MLW was trying to actively sign AAA stars to deals. MLW states they are not pursuing any Stateside contracts with AAA talents, but will continue to book AAA talents as well as independent lucha talents from Mexico.

The company is currently looking for a heel analyst type announcer to add to their broadcast team. They are looking outside the company for potential ideas.

Originally Posted by PWI

The XFL, the Harris County - Houston Sports Authority and the University of Houston today announced at a news conference that Houston, Texas, and TDECU Stadium on the U of H campus will host the league’s championship game on Sunday, April 26, 2020.

The game will feature the league’s champions from the East and West divisions and be televised nationally by ESPN at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE stock closed at $44.93 on Friday after opening at $44.00

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE PC YouTube account has been releasing a great series on Tegan Nox’s comeback this week in the lead-up to her street fight with Dakota Kai at TakeOver this Sunday. Part 1 and Part 2 can be viewed with the third episode of the series below (these definitely should have aired on NXT over the past few weeks)

Originally Posted by Fightful

Jon Moxley has filed to trademark this past week for both "Jon Moxley" and "Mox."

The two trademarks were filed in the first week of February with "Jon Moxley" being filed on February 7 and "Mox" being filed on February 8. According to Wrestling Inc, the trademarks were filed by Toledo, Ohio lawyer Michael E. Dockins, the same attorney who has done recent filings for The Revival and several AEW stars.

Originally Posted by Fightful

According to a report in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), MVP is being transitioned into a backstage producer role within WWE. This transition comes just under a month after MVP returned to WWE as part of the 2020 men's Royal Rumble match, and then subsequently wrestled his final match with the company the following night on Raw against Rey Mysterio.

Most recently, MVP was the host of his talk show segments, the VIP lounge, where he offered his managerial services to Drew McIntyre along the Road to WrestleMania, but was promptly meant with a boot to the face. According to the report from the Observer, while this isn't something that will be happening on a regular basis, MVP does so well in the role that it may be utilized sporadically.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE has unveiled a new Table for 3... only smaller.

Released on their YouTube channel, WWE gathered Braun Strowman, Drake Maverick, and Elias around a "tiny" table to talk about their careers and eat "tiny" tacos. In the video (seen above), Braun and Drake shared stories from their time travelling together, including one where Drake tried to eat the same meals as Braun, but the portions were so large that he was miserable and gave up halfway through the day.

Asked by Elias to share something interesting, Drake revealed that he was once mistaken for Braun's child.

"I remember once walking into the gym, and we asked, "do you do day passes?" Braun took over the conversation and then the women goes "yep, you and your son have a good day."

Sharing one of the moments that has stood out to him, Elias described the night he insulted the Seattle SuperSonics a career highlight.

"One moment that really sticks out to me is, I was in Seattle, and I was sitting there with Kevin Owens on the stool and I said this line about the Sonics and their basketball team. I triggered that crowd so much. I swear, I think they tried to boo me out of that building. I remember Kevin Owens was standing right next to me, screaming in my ear and I couldn't hear him."

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5321477)

Meltzer reporting Cena vs Elias at WM

Makes sense.

Cena can't have a long match and risk injury due to his filming commitments. This lets him have a short, sweet match that's a few minutes long to hit his spots, maybe for the last time too.

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5321477)

Meltzer reporting Cena vs Elias at WM

Makes sense.

Cena can't have a long match and risk injury due to his filming commitments. This lets him have a short, sweet match that's a few minutes long to hit his spots, maybe for the last time too.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5321737)

Elias doesn't matter. Cena has beaten him up at the past two Manias. He's the Pete Rose to Cena's Kane.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Due to the holiday on Monday, ratings for the XFL and Raw have been delayed.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Vince McMahon is still hands-on, but it's definitely at a distance these days.

After word that WWE was potentially shopping PPV content to outside providers dropped on the WWE Q4 2019 call, Fightful was given a tip that McMahon's attendance isn't exactly what it once was.

On the Smackdown side of things, we were told that Vince McMahon was rarely, if ever at the show between Thanksgiving and the February 5th episode. We're told that Bruce Prichard has assumed his position at Gorilla for those shows, but we don't know exactly how much input Prichard has on the final product.

Over on Raw, it was noted that Vince McMahon was around "approximately half the time." Outside of that, McMahon is said to have been exceptionally private of late. This is still a far cry from decades past, when McMahon would almost never miss an episode of WWE Raw if he could help it.

Originally Posted by Fightful

In conversation during the Royal Rumble 2005 episode of his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross revealed that before his contract expired in December 2004, The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) did indeed pitch a WrestleMania match versus Sting.

He adds, "Rock knew in his heart that he could get a match out of Sting, who had been dormant for quite a while, without any problem. Full confidence. I believe that too."

According to the legendary announcer, WWE had been trying to sign Sting since WCW closed its doors in 2001. At the time, there was a belief that he would be happy (having just been paid money owed by Time Warner), healthy, and refreshed.

"We only wanted him for a part-time role, at best, to maximize the investment, and not overuse an asset that had more matches in him than he had left," said Jim Ross.

Ultimately, the match never happened, and Johnson opted not to renew his contract. That said, Jim Ross does not believe one thing has anything to do with the other. Furthermore, responding to the assertion that Vince McMahon was "picking sides" and showing Steve Austin preferential treatment, Ross believes it was a matter of ego. It's not that Rock wasn't a priority, or that there were issues of control, but rather, in his estimation, this was Vince overcompensating and saying "no matter how big you have gotten, I will always run the ship here."

Originally Posted by Fightful

You may have noticed some changes to WWE's musical production over the last several months. That's because CFO$ is no longer working with WWE.

Fightful Select was informed that the music group had an issue with their publisher. According to one source, CFO$ was out a significant cut of money as it relates to their deal. The same aforementioned source indicated that CFO$ tried to get WWE to buy them out of their deal, which WWE seemed on board with, but the publisher rejected.

The plan that we'd heard was that WWE hoped to bring them in house, but the talks got to a stand-still, and eventually ran out. It's thought that CFO$ have a non-compete with their publisher, which is why they haven't returned.

The move was said to be a big one considering WWE's willingness to outsource the work instead of keeping it to themselves as they'd done for decades working with Jim Johnston.

This situation has caused a slowdown on WWE's lucrative WWE Music Group Youtube channel as well, with no new uploads in six months. We're told WWE had plenty of exclusive tracks from CFO$ that they've used in the months since the split happened. This has led to WWE using library tracks and an in-house editor, as they've had other departures in that department as well. WWE is still actively seeking out new employees for that division

Originally Posted by Observer

Impact announced that their Impact Plus VOD service will add a new event from Ontario-based Alpha 1 Wrestling, which is Ethan Page's promotion. They will be uploading the 2/16 show in Hamilton, ONT.

Originally Posted by Fightful

In the wake of NXT UK TakeOver: Dublin being announced for April 26, Progress Wrestling announced on Twitter that it will have an update on an event the promotion is scheduled to run on that same day.

Originally Posted by Observer

We now have a date for the next Crockett Cup tournament.

The promotion announced this afternoon that this year’s tournament will take place on April 19 at the Gateway Arena in College Park, Georgia. Tickets will go on sale February 28, with a pre-sale taking place a day prior.

The show will take place on the same day as Impact’s Rebellion pay-per-view event, which will take place in New York City.

Originally Posted by Observer

New Japan Pro Wrestling has issued some new guidelines for fans as Japan struggles with the coronavirus outbreak.

The company said all future live shows will go on, but are advising fans that if they fell ill, they should stay home. They are also encouraging fans and their staff to wear surgical-style masks in addition to providing disinfectant spray at events.

The statement also said attendee health checks may be part of future shows and that fans that don't feel well at shows may be asked to leave.

They also said that all meet and greets and autograph signings are canceled until further notice. They have events scheduled in Tokyo all weekend long.

Originally Posted by Observer

Stardom announced Tuesday they are canceling the rest of their February slate of shows and making a drastic change to their March 8th show Korakuen Hall show due to the coronavirus outbreak ...

Their March 7th FC Members Only Event Spring Bus tour set for Gunma has been postponed while their March 8th tournament show at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall will be an empty arena show with no fans allowed in the building. The event will be shown in full on their YouTube channel.

They are offering refunds to those fans who purchased tickets.

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW vice president Cody Rhodes spoke to the media for 40 minutes Tuesday afternoon, answering questions on everything from Jeff Cobb's deal to free agency to Canadian dates and plenty more ...

Some key talking points:

• He said it's unlikely to see the Bash At The Beach name or other events he owns the trademarks to with the exception of one.
• He said AEW and Jeff Cobb are still in a "gestation" stage. He's signed for more dates, but he needs to keep it vague for now ...
• He said that when it comes to free agents, the doors are open ...
• He's taken lead and an ownership role in Norcross, GA's Nightmare Factory. It's not affiliated with AEW, but open to all talent and could be something down the road ...
• They haven't talked to ROH about getting rights to the original All In, but they have a good relationship there. Young Bucks and Dana Massie own the name, so it could happen down the road.

Originally Posted by PWI

While Good Humor had announced that the returning WWE Superstars Ice Cream bars would be hitting shelves in April, PWInsider.com has confirmed that the ice cream is already being sold at Stop N Shop stores, among other locations. We've heard from ten different readers in the Northeast that they've found the bars on sale. John Cena, Roman Reigns, Becky Lynch and WWE Hall of Famer Randy Savage are featured on the cookies of the sandwich.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Former WWE talent Eve Torres-Gracie put out a post regarding an incident from 2009 involving Donald Trump during the period he was given control of Raw. Torres-Gracie cited a press event in June 2009 in Green Bay prior to Raw where she appeared alongside Torrie Wilson, Maryse Ouellet, The Bella Twins, and Maria Kanellis where she alleges that Trump forcefully grabbed her. Below is the Instagram post from Torres-Gracie:

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE stock closed at $45.96 on Tuesday, which was up over 2% during the day.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Following Nyla Rose's AEW Women's Title victory over Riho last Wednesday, former WWE superstar Val Venis took to social media to give his thoughts on the matter.

Venis criticized AEW and Rose, an openly transgender wrestler, for allowing Rose to win the Women's World Title. Venis wrote, "When I turn on the mind numbing boob-tube to watch two women wrestle for the championship, I expect to see REAL WOMEN wrestling. Today I identify as a Great Dane. Gonna enter the Westminster dog show and win the XL Dog title.”

He later clarified his comments, writing, "I never claimed #NylaRose was cheating. Its scripted & could be a heat seeking story line when portrayed responsibly. My position was & still is that portraying a biological MAN winning the Womens championship is not something to portray as moral, ethical or logical."

Speaking on a media call, AEW Co-Executive Vice President Cody addressed Venis' comments.

"It's disappointing. If you are someone that perhaps grew up liking Val Venis, he's kind of like the Disco Inferno of WWE, I don't know if anyone really knows who Val Venis is anymore. It's disappointing because I don't think he actually means the terrible, awful things, he's putting in writing. I think he's just trying to get a booking. We're not booking Val Venis and you're not gonna be booked anywhere near us."

He continued, "The real way to end some of this bigotry, transphobia, and negativity is don't hit the ball back. We all know who we're talking about here. They're the same people who do this. When we hit the ball back, you give them oxygen. I'm not giving Val Venis any oxygen when it coming to Nyla Rosa. Nyla Rose won the Women's World Championship because she was the best woman at AEW. That's just it. Stop hitting the ball back to those people. It's 2020, everybody should love everybody."

Venis was in the vocal minority of those who spoke against Rose's victory, with the majority supporting Rose for her achievement.

Originally Posted by Fightful

John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) is reportedly set to be inducted into the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame.

Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc first reported the news ...

As of now, the only confirmed inductees into the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame class are the New World Order (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan, & Sean Waltman) and Batista. Other names reportedly set to be inducted include The Bella Twins (Nikki & Brie Bella), Jushin "Thunder" Liger, and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw on Monday night did its best showing since December 30 with a 2.44 million viewer average.

For whatever reason, there is a history of Raw doing big numbers on President's Day weekend, as last year's show did 2.77 million.

The number was up four percent from last week, but the bad news was that the 22 percent first-to-thurd hour drop in audience was the seventh biggest in the history of the show ...

The second-to-third hour drop was the second largest of all-time, trailing only a 2018 episode that had Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appearing at the end of the second hour ...

The first hour was the most-watched first hour of the show since September 30.

The three hours were:
8 p.m. 2.67 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.56 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.08 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

A documentary on WWE's Florida Championship Wrestling developmental brand is set to premiere next month.

It was announced today that "A Future WWE: The FCW Story" will debut on the WWE Network on Sunday, March 8. It will be made available on-demand at 10 a.m. Eastern time that day.

FCW was WWE's developmental brand prior to it becoming NXT.

Originally Posted by Observer

Ahead of tonight's Dynamite episode in Atlanta, AEW has revealed the latest top-five roster rankings for their men's, women's, and tag team divisions:
Men's division --

Champion: Chris Jericho (0-0 singles record in 2020, 10-1-1 overall record)

• Jon Moxley (5-0 singles record in 2020, 10-1-1 overall record)
• Cody Rhodes (2-0 singles record in 2020, 9-3-1 overall record)
• PAC (1-1 singles record in 2020, 6-5-1 overall record)
• Kenny Omega (0-0 singles record in 2020, 14-6 overall record)
• MJF (2-0 singles record in 2020, 6-1 overall record)

Women's division --

Champion: Nyla Rose (3-1 singles record in 2020, 7-4 overall record)

• Riho (3-1 singles record in 2020, 11-3 overall record)
• Kris Statlander (1-1 singles record in 2020, 5-3 overall record)
• Hikaru Shida (2-1 singles record in 2020, 7-4 overall record)
• Yuka Sakazaki (1-0 singles record in 2020, 1-2 overall record)
• Britt Baker (1-2 singles record in 2020, 8-6 overall record)

Tag team division --

Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (4-0 tag team record in 2020, 14-6 overall record for Omega, 10-8 overall record for Page)

• The Young Bucks (2-1 tag team record in 2020, 12-8 overall record for Nick Jackson, 12-7 overall record for Matt Jackson)
• SCU (2-2 tag team record in 2020, 15-6 overall record for Scorpio Sky, 14-5 overall record for Frankie Kazarian
• The Dark Order (2-0 tag team record in 2020, 6-2 overall record for Evil Uno, 6-2 overall record for Stu Grayson)
• Santana & Ortiz (0-1 tag team record in 2020, 7-5 overall record for Santana, 7-5 overall record for Ortiz)
• The Lucha Bros (0-1 tag team record in 2020, 8-8 overall record for Pentagon Jr., 9-8 overall record for Fenix)

Originally Posted by Observer

Lucha Libre AAA has revealed when Kenny Omega will be making his next Mega title defense

Omega will defend his AAA Mega Championship against Laredo Kid at this year's Rey de Reyes event. The show is taking place at Poliforum Zamna in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico on Saturday, March 21 and will air live on Twitch.

Originally Posted by PWI

PROGRESS Wrestling posted they will be moving their Chapter 105 event to the date April 20 due to the announcement of NXT Takeover UK Dublin

Originally Posted by PWI

As PWInsider.com reported yesterday in the Elite section, WWE is beginning to reach out to former WWE stars about coming in for Wrestlemania 36 weekend to make appearances.

Beyond the four names we reported yesterday, PWInsider.com can exclusively also confirm that WWE has booked Brodus Clay and Ariane "Cameron" Andrew for the weekend, setting the stage for a potential reunion with current Smackdown star Naomi, who was paired with Andrew as the The Funkadactyls tag team while also linked with Clay during his time in WWE.

Clay has two developmental runs with WWE, with the second one leading to his main roster debut. He received a big push out in 2012 when he debuted as the Funkasaurus. He departed WWE in 2014, continuing to wrestle under the name Tyrus for Impact Wrestling and on the independent scene. He currently appears as a personality on FOX News' streaming FOX Nation platform. He's currently involved in a lawsuit against him and the Network for his alleged conduct towards former FOX personality Britt McHenry. He is slated to respond to that lawsuit on 3/9 after being granted an extension on responding.

Originally Posted by PWI

Sky Germany will no longer offer WWE pay-per-views as of April. They are now offering AEW events instead.

The official announcement from Sky (translated to English) reads:
Sky Germany and the WWE go their separate ways

Wrestling formats will no longer be available at Sky from April. The end of the collaboration is due to a WWE decision. Sky will now add another wrestling league to the program.

Sky Deutschland and the WWE wrestling series will no longer work together. The current contract expires at the end of March. Sky Deutschland stated that it had not continued the cooperation because the important pay-per-view events that would bring the great stories within the shows to the top and also to the end were no longer separately advertised for Germany - and could not be acquired at all. As a result, only the weekly shows “Raw” and “Smackdown” were available for the period from April onwards - in fan circles these two in particular have recently been criticized more and more because of falling quality.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Jeremy Lambert of Fightful reached out to WrestleCon about Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara being pulled from their scheduled appearances during WrestleMania 36 week/weekend. WrestleCon told Lambert that they were not contacted directly by All Elite Wrestling so they were not given a reason as to why Allin and Guevara were pulled. Both men are set to appear at The Great Philadelphia Comic Con on the same weekend as WrestleCon. It is also noted in the article that the contracts with Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho are with Barry Bloom Talent Agency and that goes over AEW and the same goes for Jon Moxley who is booked through PrimeTime Appearances.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

David Benoit was the most recent guest on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast and David revealed that he reached out to Booker T about training with Booker in Houston by way of Reality Of Wrestling:

“I talked to Booker T last Friday. So he said he would give me a call but I’m still waiting so, we’ll see.”

Vickie Guerrero and David Benoit chatted about their experiences backstage in AEW. Vickie Guerrero has done commentary on AEW Dark and she told the story of how she reached out to WWE to line up talent interviews for her podcast but once they found out she was on AEW programming, the communication between the two sides stopped.

“I have the podcast now and I had asked to interview some superstars for my podcast and they found out I went to AEW and now they don’t even talk to me, and between me and you [David Benoit], let’s just put it that way — they didn’t call me for two years. I haven’t heard from them, so what did they expect me to do? Just to sit here and wait for them to call so I can do some work? I love wrestling, I love to work in the ring and if someone’s giving me an opportunity to go and show up and have some fun, then I should be able to because I’m not obligated to anybody. But you know, I saw that I pissed in their Cheerios and so be it."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

While speaking on an international media call, Rhea Ripley told Digital Spy that she doesn’t mind if the NXT Women’s Championship is referred to as its original name or simply the “NXT Championship”. She thinks it was changed back to the NXT Women’s Title because of the backlash on social media.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

All Elite Wrestling is launching their official podcast entitled “AEW Unrestricted” and the podcast is set to debut on February 20th. There is a one minute teaser up on Apple Podcasts and it’s also noted in the description that AEW referee Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone are hosting the podcast.

Originally Posted by Fightful

At 45 years old, Tito Ortiz may be looking to add WWE Superstar to his resume.

The former UFC champion is currently training at the WWE Performance Center, according to a report by Dave Meltzer on the February 15th episode of Wrestling Observer Radio ...

On Tuesday, WWE confirmed to ESPN that Ortiz had been training at the WWE Performance Center. Ortiz declined to comment, though sources told ESPN that he did well in his training.

Originally Posted by Observer

Going against the Democratic presidential debate but no major sports competition, both AEW Dynamite and NXT were up in the ratings this week.

Dynamite averaged 893,000 viewers, up nine percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show averaged a 0.31 rating, which was up three percent from the prior week. Dynamite finished fifth in the cable TV ratings in that category.

NXT was up five percent, averaging 794,000 viewers. In the 18-49 demo, it averaged a 0.25 rating, up four percent from last week. NXT finished 16th in the cable rankings, one of their better finishes in that category.

Aside from when the show ran unopposed on Christmas night, it was the highest viewership total for NXT since December 18.

The demos were different than usual this week as the shows tied in people over 50, a category NXT usually wins out in. NXT had a slight win in people 18-34, with a 0.19 rating to Dynamite's 0.18.

AEW won big in males 18-49 with a 0.44 rating to NXT's 0.32. But with females in that age range, the shows both had a 0.18 rating.

The debate likely hurt NXT more than AEW, given that the debate did a monster rating in people over 50, the category NXT usually wins in.

Originally Posted by Observer

On Wednesday's Wrestling Observer Radio (subscription needed), Dave Meltzer gave some updates on New Japan's UK plans and their effort to get a new U.S. TV deal.

London

He said they are planning to hold a big show in London, England, later this year on a similar scale to last year's Royal Quest event. Originally, the company was going to focus on shows solely in Japan and the U.S. for 2020, but have changed their plans. Meltzer speculated the show will again be at the Copper Box Arena.

U.S. TV Deal

Meltzer said the company is working on a U.S. TV deal, but would describe them as preliminary at best. AXS TV canceled their deal with New Japan a year early, leaving them without a U.S. TV outlet for the first time in five years. Meltzer said that New Japan chose not to sue AXS for breaking their contract while regional MMA group Legacy Fighting Alliance filed a lawsuit earlier this month.

Originally Posted by PWI

Over the Top Wrestling in Ireland announced today that NXT star Tyler Bate has been pulled from their event due to injury:

Due to recent injury, Tyler Bate will no long appear at #DeadOn
This is unavoidable in wrestling, Apologies #OTT pic.twitter.com/MAUKsCgOHX
— OTT WRESTLING (@OTT_wrestling) February 20, 2020

There's been word making the rounds about Bate being injured over the last week or so, but there's no official confirmation on the nature of the injury or how it happened.

Originally Posted by PWI

Steve Austin, responding to a fan on social media, noted his Straight Up Steve Austin USA Network series will be returning "soon."

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who asked, yes, that was former ECW World Champion Raven sitting in the crowd during last night's Dynamite episode. He lives in Atlanta.

As noted last night, Austin Aries and DDP were backstage visiting.

Originally Posted by Fightful

According to Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net, Aries and Diamond Dallas Page were at AEW Dynamite trying to get AEW to buy into a stem cell treatment venture that they are part of.

Wrestlers have taken to stem cell treatment in past few years with Rey Mysterio, Brian Cage, John Morrison, Rob Van Dam, and more undergoing stem cell treatment to help prolong their careers and deal with past injuries. Aries has mentioned BioXcellerator stem cell therapy on his social media in the past.

Recently, Aries has been hanging out with Page and taken to DDP Yoga. Page has a DDP Yoga studio based in Georgia and is a regular at AEW events due to his relationship with Cody Rhodes.

Originally Posted by PWI

The early word is that the AEW action figure line will be released this summer. Our good friends at www.RingsideCollectibles.com will be carrying them, obviously! AEW will have representation at the International Toy Fair this week promoting the line, which is being produced by Jazware's Wicked Cool Toys. WCT is headed by Jeremy Padawer, who was responsible for the WWE Jakks Classics Superstars line, so AEW couldn't ask for a better partner when it comes to creating and launching that toy line.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Soon-to-be two-time WWE Hall Of Famers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash joined Corey Graves on After The Bell. Hall and Nash were asked who would they pick to join them, Sean “X-Pac” Waltman and Hogan on stage for their induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame this year and here are their respective selections:

Scott Hall: “I guess, from a fan’s point of view, maybe they wouldn’t agree but from somebody who’s behind the curtain, I would think Eazy E. I would think Eric Bischoff because the whole thing was his idea, but I guess if you’re a viewing fan, you don’t see it that way. That’s the way I see it. I would have Bischoff up there with us.”

Kevin Nash: “I would have Kevin Sullivan. Yeah, because Sullivan was the guy that basically… though it was Eric’s idea, Sullivan was the one that made sure… there’s always been the equation that if you’re a heel, in order for you to be successful it’s like a hot air balloon and the more heat that you allow inside that balloon, the higher it goes and the more valuable that heel energy is, and Sullivan just really battled day in, day out to make sure that they didn’t take heat off us, and nobody got through the n.W.o. and Sullivan always books heat and he continued to book heat and his booking of that heat is what made the nWo.”

Kevin Nash stayed on the podcast for the remainder of the show and he and Corey Graves chatted about a variety of topics. Graves asked Nash what would’ve happened in his career had he stayed with WWF and didn’t go to WCW and Nash said he wouldn’t have dropped the world title to Bret Hart unless he was guaranteed a win over The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

“If I would’ve stayed, I wouldn’t have dropped the belt to Bret to give to Shawn unless I was guaranteed a win at Mania against Taker. I wouldn’t have done it. I would’ve had too many losses in a row. I would’ve needed a big win right there. So then there goes the streak. I’m just saying, butterfly effect. Mark wasn’t a mark. For me to do business, that could’ve been a possibility. I’m not saying it would’ve happened, I’m not saying if Vince would’ve booked it I would’ve went over but I definitely wouldn’t have coughed it up without something. I was leaving so I mean, it was just like, ‘Alright.’ It was a lot of things that could’ve changed.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

Jon Moxley stunned the wrestling world when he showed up at AEW Double or Nothing 2019, just weeks after his WWE contract had expired. Moxley appeared at the end of the pay-per-view, attacking Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, standing tall on a poker chip prop to close the show.

Fans treated Moxley like a hero for his debut, but Moxley was worried he would be seen as Dean Ambrose to the audience.

"Double or Nothing was three weeks after my contract was going to be up. And it was in Vegas. Something about it being in Vegas made it a sign. I didn't even find that show, that show found me," Moxley said on AEW Unrestricted. "I was like, 'Alright, I guess we're doing this.' I didn't know if people would cheer, boo, or not make any noise at all. I feel like my reputation had been tarnished so bad that I had to start from scratch. Once you get popped in the ass with a syringe on TV....I remember one time standing in the ring in a bear suit and I can't explain to you why. I DDT'd The Miz and took off the bear hat. You get the Pavlovian response of 'yeah!' but I remember thinking, 'This is so stupid. This is not funny or entertaining.' I remember standing in the ring thinking, 'I've hit rock bottom. I'm just done. This sucks. What have I become in the bear suit?' I had many moments like that. I was scared fans outside of WWE, they want an alternative. I was scared that I was so synonymous with WWE crap that I'd walk out and they'd be like 'Oh God, the idiot from WWE. What are you gonna do, hit someone with a hot dog?' I was scared of that. I never explained my gratitude toward the people that were in the building that night for embracing and accepting me as myself and not putting any of WWE's crap onto me. Then it's off the to races. I thought it was going to be a long rehabilitation process, but it came back so quickly. Like I had been asleep for years and I woke up out of a nap. It was like a guy who was in jail. 'Oh, Jon is out of jail.' Cool. He's back."

Moxley went on to say that he believes the video where he re-introduced Jon Moxley by escaping the jail went a long way in helping tell the audience that he was entering a fresh start.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE produced one of the strongest in-ring shows in company history with the 2/14 NXT Takeover Portland show ...which drew 7,800 fans to the Moda Center in Portland, OR. Paul Levesque said the live gate was the largest for a pro wrestling event in the state of Oregon since 2008. It was October 5, 2008, to be specific, the No Mercy show at the Rose Garden in Portland which drew 9,527 fans for a show headlined by Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho in a ladder match.

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5322802)

Major WM news being reported by both John Pollock of POST wrestling and Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer


The SD card has been completely tossed out. Vince changed his mind and all the rumored WM matches on the SD side are being changed.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5322984)

It sucks they don’t have any full-time guys with proper main event charisma, but that’s a problem you can address later.

Originally Posted by Guru Dave (Post 5322996)

Yeah, it's not like they've put that problem on the back burner since WrestleMania XXVIII.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5323005)

Yeah, and they definitely should have fixed the problem earlier. And it goes back way earlier. But what does that have to do with right now, you stupid cunt?

Originally Posted by Guru Dave (Post 5323016)

From what I understand, you're in favor of delaying it even further in order to get your jollies. Cena hasn't wrestled a proper match in a while and Goldberg is an absolute train wreck unless it's a squash.

While I am not aware of your stance on Wyatt or his new gimmick, the company has put a lot of stock in his presentation over the past year. It'd be a shame for his arc to end abruptly prior to WrestleMania. As a fan, I am concerned about good storytelling rather than what would look better as a marquee match for ESPN+ or Amazon Prime. I find your priorities amusing.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nerfect (Post 5323018)

It wouldn’t be a long match for exactly those reasons. Cena shouldn’t be in anything long, nor should Goldberg. It’s a perfect fit. And if I were trying to make money for the company that has the primary goal of making money, I would definitely go with the option that makes more money and build those other people up to make more money later (if they can). Yes, how very amusing.

Originally Posted by Guru Dave (Post 5323024)

Let's take the Universal title off the guy we've been pushing for the last year so that two special attractions can have a squash match in the middle of the card. Makes for a very compelling storyline.

Have you invested in the company? I do find it amusing that your concerns lie in the finances of the company rather than enjoying the product that they're putting out.

Originally Posted by TPWW Frontpage via Triple A

Monday’s Raw drew an average of 2,210,000 viewers on USA Network, down from last week’s 2,437,000 viewers.

Raw was #1, #2 and #3 on cable for the day with a 0.71 average rating in the 18-49 demographic, down from last week’s 0.79 rating.

This time last year, the February 25, 2019 Raw drew 2,922,000 viewers. The February 26, 2018 Raw drew 3,180,000 viewers.

Hourly breakdown:

8PM: 2,246,000
9PM: 2,278,000
10PM: 2,106,000

Originally Posted by PWI

The word making the rounds at Raw tonight is that Bret Hart will be inducting Davey Boy Smith into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Originally Posted by PWI

The new referee on Raw tonight is Jake Clemons, who has worked throughout the United States and Canada, including AIW, Smash Wrestling, EVOLVE and other promotions.

Originally Posted by PWI

During an interview with Maria Menounos, Cathy Kelley revealed that she decided to leave WWE for a multitude of reasons.

She stated that she wanted to work on other projects and the WWE schedule wasn't conducive to that.

Kelley also stated that she started to feel some exhaustion from the schedule.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Fightful Select has confirmed that Matt Hardy was not backstage at WWE Raw, effectively ending his run with the company unless something substantial changes. Hardy could technically still be called in to work Smackdown, but his contract expires Sunday.

Originally Posted by PWI

MLW TV this week ended with the near riot in Dallas with fans losing it over Tom Lawlor and Team Filthy beating down The Von Erichs as they went off the air. What wasn't shown is that the crowd was so angry and challenging Lawlor, Erick Stevens and Dominic Garrini that the Von Erichs were sent back out to chase them off to ease some of the heat.

Originally Posted by Observer

Today is the one-year anniversary of Roman Reigns announcing that his leukemia is in remission. Reigns tweeted this afternoon: “Sharing this life with millions of people is one of the things that makes being a @WWE Superstar amazing. Life has struggles and setbacks, but the power and prayers of this Universe gave me the strength to fight back. Thank y’all for your support. We got much more to do!!!”

Originally Posted by Observer

Downstait will perform Cody’s theme music “Kingdom” live at this Saturday’s Revolution PPV.

Originally Posted by PWI

Tony Schiavone announced on his Twitter that he is now with AEW full-time, choosing leaving his duties in the baseball world behind.

Originally Posted by PWI

There is a LOT of talk that Lance Hoyt is coming in next month, especially since he is not listed for the New Japan Cup. AEW teased him as the Exalted One a few days ago online.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Last Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite did 402,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic, which was up from 391,000 the prior week. Overall, the show did a 0.55 rating and 893,000 total viewers on TNT for the episode featuring Cody vs. Wardlow in the steel cage match.

Friday Night SmackDown did 952,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo last week. That figure was up from 946,000 the week prior. SmackDown finished with a 1.55 rating and 2,484,000 viewers on Fox. They were number one in the 18-49 demo for the night among network programming.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Appearing on the "Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia Podcast," Booker T talked about how scripted promos aren't doing a lot of good for some wrestlers today as it doesn't give them the opportunity to be themselves.

"It's a different world now as far as the scripted promos. I think it takes away a lot of the originality of the guy actually being able to put himself against the wall and have to go out there and get over, the guy to have to think about it, opposed to when you just have someone writing it for you. You're not going to take the time like I did to go and look in the mirror and pretend I'm cutting a promo on myself. You're not going to do that. You're not going to go and look in the mirror and just ... Just to try to make your top lip move, to see how angry you can make yourself look. It's just small, little bitty things. You're not going to take the time to actually try to hone your craft, because you got someone handing it to you, unless you're that driven," Booker T said.

Booker T spoke about his experience with scripted promos and finishes, recalling the time he worked with John Laurinaitis. Booker said he isn't opposed to the idea of scripted promos, but wants performers to have the option to be themselves and decide whether or not something that was written for them would be beneficial.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Goldberg doesn't have much to say when it comes to Matt Riddle, but that doesn't mean he won't be asked.

The beef between Goldberg and Riddle heated up at WWE Super ShowDown 2019 when Riddle was critical of Goldberg's bout against The Undertaker. The match was marred by botches thanks in large part to Goldberg knocking himself out on the ringpost when attempting a spear. Following the bout, Riddle called Goldberg "the worst wrestler in the business."

The two men got into a verbal altercation at SummerSlam 2019, that basically boiled down to Goldberg saying he is not Matt Riddle's "bro."

Speaking to EGO TOTAL's Israeli Wrestling Podcast, TOTAL SLAM, Goldberg was once again asked about Riddle and the beef between the two men.

"He's like a booger that gets caught in your nose. He's just annoying and won't go away. He has nothing to do and has no bearing on Goldberg's life. Period. End of statement."

That settles that.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Johnny Gargano believes all brands are equal.

Ever since NXT found a home on USA Network in September 2019, the gold brand has been on equal footing as Raw and SmackDown. And if you try to dispute the difference between "main roster" and NXT, Johnny Gargano won't be pleased.

"That's BS," Gargano told TMZ when asked about fans still calling Raw and SmackDown the "main roster." "Complete garbage and it's something that me and a lot of guys have worked to dispel for a very long time. Anyone out there who uses the word 'main roster' when talking about Raw and SmackDown, how about you watch the show on Wednesday night. You'll see the real main roster. You'll see the best wrestling show on the planet. The best locker room on the planet, led by me! That's what you'll see on Wednesday night. Main roster, developmental, you're stupid if you use those words. You're stupid. Quit it."

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE has officially begun teasing an appearance by The Undertaker for tomorrow's Super ShowDown event.

WWE posted a picture of The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia on Twitter today and wrote "What is The #Undertaker doing in Saudi Arabia ahead of #WWESSD?! (cc: @Enjoy_Saudi)." They also posted an article on WWE.com hyping that Undertaker is in the country ...

Dave Meltzer had confirmed earlier this week that The Undertaker had traveled with WWE to Saudi Arabia.

Though the match has yet to be officially announced, The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles is planned for WrestleMania 36.

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW released this week's roster rankings this morning. Jon Moxley, Kris Statlander, and The Young Bucks top their respective division's rankings ahead of their title matches at Revolution. The PPV is taking place at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois this Saturday ...

The full rankings for this week are listed below:

Men's division --

Champion: Chris Jericho (0-0 singles record in 2020, 10-1-1 overall record)

• Jon Moxley (6-0 singles record in 2020, 11-1-1 overall record)
• Cody Rhodes (3-0 singles record in 2020, 10-3-1 overall record)
• PAC (1-1 singles record in 2020, 6-5-1 overall record)
• Kenny Omega (0-0 singles record in 2020, 15-6 overall record)
• MJF (2-0 singles record in 2020, 6-1 overall record)

Women's division --

Champion: Nyla Rose (3-1 singles record in 2020, 7-4 overall record)

• Kris Statlander (2-1 singles record in 2020, 6-3 overall record)
• Riho (3-1 singles record in 2020, 11-3 overall record)
• Hikaru Shida (2-1 singles record in 2020, 7-4 overall record)
• Yuka Sakazaki (1-0 singles record in 2020, 1-2 overall record)
• Britt Baker (1-2 singles record in 2020, 8-6 overall record)

Tag team division --

Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (5-0 tag team record in 2020, 15-6 overall record for Omega, 11-8 overall record for Page)

• The Young Bucks (2-1 tag team record in 2020, 12-8 overall record for Nick Jackson, 12-7 overall record for Matt Jackson)
• SCU (2-2 tag team record in 2020, 15-6 overall record for Scorpio Sky, 14-5 overall record for Frankie Kazarian
• The Dark Order (3-0 tag team record in 2020, 7-2 overall record for Evil Uno, 7-2 overall record for Stu Grayson)
• Santana & Ortiz (0-1 tag team record in 2020, 7-5 overall record for Santana, 7-5 overall record for Ortiz)
• Best Friends (2-2 tag team record in 2020, 8-12 overall record for Trent Barreta, 7-9 overall record for Chuck Taylor)

Originally Posted by 411Mania

During today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer commented on the Rusev and WWE Super ShowDown situation. According to Meltzer, the story going on within WWE is that Rusev has an “injury.” However, Meltzer claims that Rusev “backed out of the show, essentially.”

As noted below, last night’s Raw still featured a graphic for the match with Rusev in it, despite Rusev already being out of the match and Rey Mysterio now taking his place.

Originally Posted by PWI

Major League Wrestling execs were at the CBS/Viacom HQ in New York City yesterday for meetings on a potential TV and streaming rights deal, PWInsider.com has confirmed. We don't have any additional information at this time.

Originally Posted by PWI

FITE.TV issued the following:

FITE to Offer AEW Revolution via live PPV Internationally, Outside the USA, On Saturday, Feb. 29th, 2020

WHAT: FITE will offer the PPV event AEW Revolution live from Chicago for $19.99

FITE offers live HD PPV events online, and to all mobile, OTT and IT-connected devices. FITE has DVR, live chat, reminders, voting, countdown clock and replays!

Originally Posted by PWI

While WWE Hall of Famers Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart were slated to make the trip to Saudi Arabia for the WWE Super Showdown PPV, we have not confirmed they are there with the rest of the crew.

Lana is in Saudi Arabia, so she may be accompanying Bobby Lashley to ringside. Zelina Vega is not there so she would obviously not be with Andrade or Angel Garza.

As we noted last night, The Undertaker has been seen in Saudi Arabia as well.

We are told that WWE used the same charter airline company for travel to Saudi Arabia this week as the last trip.

The temperature in Riyadh is supposed to top out at 79 degrees tomorrow, dropping into the high 60s by the time the show gets underway, so it should not be a factor the way it was for the last show headlined by Undertaker vs. Bill Goldberg.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

DDT Pro-Wrestling and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling have cancelled multiple events in the coming days/weeks due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Tokyo Joshi Pro, which is the sister company to DDT will be doing empty arena shows along with DDT that will be streamed.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) did an interview with Comicbook.com and they talked about Marty Scurll deciding to stay with Ring of Honor instead of joining All Elite Wrestling. Nick Jackson said that he and Matt got the hint a few months prior that Marty was staying with ROH. Regardless, they are happy for him and Ring of Honor.

Nick Jackson: “We were kind of feeling him out for a while now and he always was very vague with us, anytime we would bring up storylines and stuff. So, we pretty much got the hint three months ago or so, and we realized, ‘Okay, he’s staying put.’ Good for him though, and that he knows how we feel, it’s a business. Yeah, it would’ve been great to have him with us because we’re good friends, but he got a great deal out of it and he seems to be very happy. He’s definitely going to try to paint his path on his own and more respect to him for doing that. We’re all cool though.”

Matt Jackson: “I feel the same way. Marty got a great offer and I think he wanted it to be more than just a wrestler and he got an opportunity to do that, and Marty is a clever guy and he’s very talented. I love him and I hope nothing but the best for him, and I hope he can make the place he’s working a better place. I want wrestling everywhere to succeed because as long as the boys are being taken care of and there’s more opportunities for the boys and girls to wrestle and make money, support their families, then great because the wrestling world needs Ring of Honor to do well, and I think Marty, if you can pinpoint any person right now that can help them, it’s him. Good on them, and I’m happy for Marty.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Bar Wrestling announced that Kris Statlander has come down with the flu and will not be able to compete at their show on February 27th. Statlander is slated to challenge Nyla Rose for the AEW Women’s World Championship at Revolution on the 29th.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On the latest edition of Arn Anderson’s podcast, he and Conrad Thompson reviewed the 2018 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view ...

The main event of Elimination Chamber 2018 was the men’s Chamber match featuring Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman, The Miz, Elias and John Cena. Arn discussed Braun Strowman’s ups and downs career-wise and questions why would WWE built him up to be a monster to not have him win the big matches.

“I think Braun Strowman, we all know to be a monster. But you don’t have to have him just do ridiculous things like pull the tron down and flip an 18-wheeler over to show me that the guy’s a monster. That goes beyond being a monster. You pick up the rear-end of a vehicle and tires are sitting there spinning… the question would be: If you push a guy and build a guy that hard, and you go that far with making him supernatural, what opponent is ever gonna get him hurt? And if you can’t hurt him, how can you feel for him? And if you can’t feel for him, how can he ever be your champion? When these things are being done for these guys, you just sit there and look and you go, ‘You’re just gonna do more damage than good here. This is not plausible. For a guy to turn an 18-wheeler over? Come on.’ So, there’s a hodge-podge of things going on. They probably hit Braun with how many finishes before they got him out of there? Ten? Everybody’s, maybe twice? Does that make you feel for the guy in a positive way or do you just go, ‘Aww come on. Enough is enough.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

During the 2/25/20 edition of WWE Backstage on FS1, The Bella Twins revealed that it was Vince McMahon who called them about their Hall Of Fame induction.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Jon Moxley spoke with Rick Ucchino of ESPN 1530/Sportskeeda and Moxley explained that he feels that winning the AEW World Championship is going to be a greater feeling than winning the WWE Championship.

“Best way I can describe it… it was a giant sense of relief. I had been pushing the boulder up to the top of the hill and had it roll all the way back down so many times and I felt like I disappointed so many fans by failing to win the title so many times. Once I finally was able to check that box and get that thing… the biggest feeling honestly was relief. Chris Jericho is arguably hotter than he’s ever been, and that’s really saying something considering Chris Jericho’s career. I think he’s not just trying to be good every week, he’s trying to be the greatest of all time, and like I said I’ve been running through competition; killing dudes – you’re getting the best version of Chris Jericho and the best version of Jon Moxley at the same time and something’s gotta give, somebody’s gotta go down. This, I feel, will be a far greater feeling. You know this is me, on my own, doing things my way. Totally different situation. Not even a comparable situation – as good as a night as that [WWE Title victory] was.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

According to Showbuzz Daily, WWE Backstage failed to crack the top 150 in ratings from the 18-49 demographic among original cable telecasts for the day. This is the second time this happened for the show this year.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Aleister Black has one of the more unique entrances in WWE as he emerges on a rising platform from beneath the fog.

Black's entrance has become synonymous with his character, and appearing on WWE's The Bump, Black discussed the thought process behind the entrance.

"There's this band called Watain, a black metal band, there's a live performance and I always loved the DVD. The aesthetic of that was mesmerizing," Black explained. "It had a lot of fire and red. When we started putting (my entrance) together, I showed them the DVD and said 'this is the kind of aesthetic I want to go for.' They tried to re-create that in a WWE setting. They created this stage, as soon as the lights go down and the candles come up, the audience knows what time it is. They did such a good job in priming the audience to know what's happening. The landscape changes. The light changes, the candles come up, it's dark, there's fog and the entrance is completely different. I was talking to Triple H about it and he showed me this construction [lifting platform] and he goes, 'It was actually meant for The Undertaker. We don't have any use for it right now, what do you think?' I said, 'I'll take it.'"

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who have asked, WWE's crew had a charter flight out last night at 2 AM local time in Riyadh and everyone has landed in Boston as scheduled for tonight's Smackdown broadcast.

So, if there were any concerns about the crew getting back on time, they can now be laid to rest.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Tampa Bay Times featured a piece on Wrestlemania 36 coming up locally, including concerns over the coronavirus impacting Wrestlemania 36 weekend.

“The health and safety of not only our fan base, but also our superstars, really does come first,” Stephanie McMahon commented. “We don’t want to put anyone in a bad situation ever, regardless of the circumstance. Those are not risks worth taking.”

“Given the number of live events that (WWE) does, it’s constantly monitoring global events,” said John Saboor, WWE’s executive vice president of special events. “There are active and ongoing discussions at play internally, like there are in any sector of American business, and certainly families as a whole. So I think those will continue.”

Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, noted they are gathering information so they can be prepared as possible with Stephanie noting, "“And if necessary, enact those measures."

Originally Posted by PWI

The NXT ticket website has a listing for a Tuesday night taping April 7 at Full Sail. Those tickets will go on sale this Monday. Of course, that is two days after WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by PWI

During today's All Elite Wrestling panel at C2E2 in Chicago the panel was asked about old-school matches they would like to resurrect in the future in AEW.

Interestingly, Cody commented that they would be announcing a old school match concept tomorrow that would "upset some people."

While what the announcement will be is not confirmed, it should be noted that Cody has in the past filed for a trademark on the term "The Match Beyond", a common subtitle used for Wargames in the NWA and World Championship Wrestling, so that may be a clue.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On the ‘No Way Out 2000’ episode of the Grilling JR podcast, he and Conrad Thompson discussed the current version of the XFL. During their conversation, Jim Ross revealed that a few years ago, Kevin Dunn asked him to put him in contact with FOX which Jim Ross did. This would ultimately lead to Friday Night SmackDown being on FOX with the addition of WWE Backstage on FS1.

“Kevin Dunn called me one time and [it] was in the last couple of years and said, ‘You know these guys at FOX, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah’, and then my buddy at FOX, Jacob Ullman who’s one of my dear friends, still is, senior producer there. He said, ‘Can you introduce me to someone who can get the ball rolling or discussions rolling with WWE?’ And I said, ‘Of course I can.’ He said, ‘Keep it under wraps but I’d like to have a talk but I just don’t know the right people to talk to.’ So I said, ‘I can handle that’ so, I hooked up Jacob Ullman and Kevin Dunn to talk at the JW Marriott in Los Angeles, and I wasn’t in the meeting, I arranged the meeting, got ‘em together, set their own time and place and then the rest is history. Jacob was a big fan, and a great guy, a great friend of Jan and mine. He hurt about as bad as I did when Jan got killed. So we’re that close. So they met and then the layers were added and more people were added and all of sudden, now you got what you got.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

With New Japan Pro-Wrestling cancelling their shows for the first 15 days of the month of March due to the Coronavirus, they will be uploading a plethora of content to NJPW World. Interviews, talk panels and never before seen matches will be added to the service. This project is called the ‘NJPW Together Project’. On March 3rd, Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi will do a sit-down interview together and on the 4th, they’ll host a talk show together. Naito and Takahashi were scheduled to clash at NJPW’s Anniversary show in March.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Variety is reporting that WWE’s Sonya Deville, real name Daria Berenato has signed with Imagine Artist Management for representation. Her signing could open the door for potential television and film roles.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Coming off the helms of the announcement about their induction into the 2020 WWE Hall Of Fame, Nikki and Brie Bella shared their thoughts about their eventful week on the newest edition of The Bellas Podcast. Nikki stated that she and Brie pitched the idea to WWE to have some of their fans induct them into the Hall Of Fame and WWE did not reject the idea but were hesitant.

“Even when Brie and I were talking about inducting — who’s gonna induct us. Our first thought when they asked us, we thought, ‘Oh! Can we do Bella Army members? We’d really just like to make it very heavy about the Bella Army’ and they were like, ‘I don’t know. We’ve never had that before. We’re gonna have to talk.’ But Brie and I, that’s who we immediately thought of and when they play the amazing packages, they interview a lot of WWE superstars. Brie and I were like, ‘Oh! Can you interview Bella Army members? Is it possible to fly them out to the corporate office?’ And they were like, ‘Uh, Bellas, we’re gonna have to get back to you on that’, but our Bella Army is everything to us so, please send ideas.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WWE Universal Champion Goldberg referred to Macaulay Culkin as a “dork” on Twitter after Culkin tweeted that he’s cancelling his travel to WrestleMania 36 after Goldberg became Universal Champion.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Kevin Owens is donating all the money he makes from his ‘Just Keep Fighting’ shirt to a mental health organization in Canada and another organization in the U.S.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

During Brody King’s appearance on ‘The Hard Times’ podcast, he spoke about his decision to sign with Ring of Honor. Brody recalled speaking with William Regal about possibly joining WWE and here’s what Regal told Brody King before he made his final decision:

“I talked to Regal a few times and it was kind of like… his advice was always really awesome. It was like, ‘Go do everything you want to do in wrestling because when you come to the WWE, it all stops.’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Comicbook.com conducted an interview with Kenny Omega. While speaking about the G1 Climax tournament, Omega shared that there have been internal discussions within AEW about a tournament taking place although the idea has not been finalized.

“Every one of those tournaments, they’re rough on the body and it’s tough to figure out a schedule to do so. Whether it be a round robin tournament, a league style or one night, we are definitely looking into a tournament format because people, as a fan [myself] even, I love tournaments. As a performer they’re tough to do, but I think it really tests the athletes’ mettle and it really separates the men from the boys. Yeah, I would love to do a tournament. I don’t know what we’d call it. Don’t have any ideas for a name, but all of us have been brought on board with [a] tournament. It’s just a matter of figuring out how.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

New York Post published their interview with Dustin Rhodes and Rhodes further spoke about the hate messages that Nyla Rose received upon winning the AEW Women’s World Championship. Dustin says he views Nyla as family and those who criticize her because she’s a transgender woman need to let people live their lives.

“It’s there. It’s not going away and I didn’t understand that for the longest time. Then I got married to my wonderful third wife and my son is trans. So I started to learn a little bit about it and I [started seeing] all the stuff these men and women go through and it’s so ridiculous and stupid. This is 2020, man. Let somebody live their life like they want to. I don’t care what the Bible says. I don’t care what anybody else says. Live your life and be happy. That’s all I care about for my son is to be happy and nobody picks on him because if they do, they got to deal with me, and I see that in Nyla. I treat her like she’s my child. I love Nyla to death and I don’t think of any of that when I’m at work with her and I watch her perform and she’s a great performer. This is not the Olympics, OK. This is pro wrestling, this is entertainment. This is scripted stuff that we do and you’re gonna have Nyla Rose wrestle Riho and everybody get all bent out of shape about it and just really give her hell, I don’t like that at all. I take offense to that and I let them know it because it’s wrong.”

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw last night was up two percent from last week with 2.26 million viewers ...

It was the third lowest number of viewers for Raw in the modern era for a non-holiday episode or an episode without opposition from a major sporting event.

The episode was Raw's go-home show for Elimination Chamber and also the first Raw since Super ShowDown.

It was up four percent in 18-49 and was the top show on cable in that demo. It was 11th place on cable overall, trailing news shows.

The show was down 18 percent from the same week's episode last year ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.36 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.30 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.12 million viewers

Originally Posted by Observer

The next member of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class will be revealed on WWE Backstage tonight. The new Hall of Famer will be appearing on tonight's show.

Originally Posted by Observer

In AEW’s Road to Denver video promoting tomorrow’s Dynamite, Cody explained why he got his Nightmare Family logo neck tattoo. Cody said he’s wanted to get the logo tattooed on him for more than a year and it isn’t something that he wants to cover up. Cody said if it represents anything, it represents individual identity.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Over the past year, Cody went on a filing spree, applying for trademarks relating to old WCW events ...

Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Cody revealed why he has trademarked so many WCW names.

"It's a legal nightmare. This was AEW's first Bash at the Beach and it also might be AEW's last. WWE is not particularly happy about all the trademarks I acquired. Trademark law is actually basic, everywhere but wrestling. Wrestling, there's this idea that if you buy something but let it lapse, it's still yours. The spoils of war. Wrestling legitimately had a war between WCW and WWE and WWE actually won. The amount of bad fallout that came from that is so much larger than the good stuff. Does WWE do a good job as a custodian of history? Absolutely. The Network is done well and they do some stuff well. But there's been a lot of things that they didn't care for that they let lapse. Anything that was connected to my dad, I wanted to pick up. I don't know what my grand play is here, I just wanted to pick it up to have for my family. I'm not making any money off it. I think my grand scheme was, I was going to get as many things to irritate them as possible so they were just like, 'You can have Starrcade.' Great American Bash and Starrcade are 100% Dusty's. I would rather have those than 100 Slamborees," he said.

WWE currently owns the trademark on "Starrcade," holding a special WWE Network live event under the "Starrcade" name annually. Cody and AEW will be putting another trademark to use in March with "The Match Beyond," which is a term for WarGames. WWE owns the WarGames trademark.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Game Changer Wrestling provided an update on the status of Keiji Muto for Spring Break IV with the Japanese star’s presence in limbo for the event. GCW issued a lengthy statement about the problems they have experienced after working out two separate deals with Muto and promoting him for the April 3rd show in Ybor City and appear on behalf of GCW at WrestleCon.

Since then, Sonny Onoo (the former WCW manager) has got involved telling the promotion he would be handling Muto’s dealings with the company and would seek other work for Muto that weekend in Tampa. Onoo informed GCW he brokered a deal with a vendor to bring Muto to WrestleCon and that would replace his previous agreement in place with GCW. The company was willing to allow this to occur providing this new vendor share in the costs for travel and accommodation, which Onoo was stunned by. According to GCW, they learned that the mystery vendor was Onoo and they surmised he was trying to get in on the WrestleCon booking while GCW ate the cost. Onoo later admitted to the company he was the vendor. They stated Onoo has stopped relaying messages to Muto and that his presence at Spring Break IV is unlikely pending some drastic change in the negotiations.

Among the requests Onoo was asking for of GCW in their talks were four nights at a Disney hotel in Orlando, four 4-day Park Hopper passes to Disney parks, a 12.5% commission to Sonny Onoo, four skybox seats for WrestleMania in Tampa, and transportation to and from Orlando and Tampa.

Following this news, John Thorne of Absolute Intense Wrestling and Kevin Matthews from WrestlePro have each shared stories of their problems dealing with Onoo in the past.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for a new wrestling series led by Gail Kim, Christy Hemme, and Amy Dumas.

The series is titled KAYfABE with Kim, Hemme, and Dumas as the public faces behind the campaign. The team also consists of Jimmy Jacobs, former WWE writer Tom Casiello, Chavo Guerrero Jr., David Sahadi, and Alisha Edwards among others.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp conducted an interview with Lita, Gail Kim and Christy Hemme upon the announcement of their KAYfABE wrestling series that they are launching. Christy shared that although the show will be female-centric, males will be included in the program.

“It’s female-centric, it’s female-led, it will be primarily female however, we will definitely have men in there. I always say that everything should be story-driven and called for so if the story is calling for a man which we need — stories need men… and having men in the ring. I don’t see that not being a part of the show.”

During the conversation, Lita talked about her time as a producer/writer in WWE. She explained how she got the opportunity to earn that experience and how she’ll use that knowledge to help grow KAYfABE.

“You mentioned Tough Enough which kind of started my production journey. So I did just sign up to do the show to be a trainer, but we only shot a couple days a week and it was shot in Florida, I was living in San Francisco and so I had an apartment in Florida — didn’t go back and forth every week. That led me to just hanging out in the editing bays, hanging out with the producers, hanging out in the production meetings and just really getting into the nuts and bolts of how you put everything together and take it apart and finding a lot of stimulation in that, and then I got in with the production meetings and really got with Kevin Dunn and he taught me so much which then led me to producing RAW and SmackDown. So, I really was excited to join up with these women to be on the production end and the creative end, because I found so much stimulation, I had so many opportunities in my career in front of the camera. When I got to help people to become their best self in front of the camera, it was really stimulating to me and so that feels [like] a really good spot to be in here.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Arn Anderson and Conrad Thompson hosted a Q&A session for the latest edition of the ‘ARN’ podcast. Anderson was asked about Bray Wyatt’s run in WWE thus far and the conversation led to Arn talking about the team of Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt and their eventual WWE Title match at WrestleMania 33. Arn stated that Orton and Wyatt were very over with the crowd and there is sort of a on-going thing in WWE where if talents are getting over without any assistance from the office, that project gets shut down.

“They were over and they were getting over strong as a team. I was there for it. It was tremendous. Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt made a great team, and it was gonna be one of those things that we talk about on this show all the time, when something gets hotter than it was expected to get and it starts to boil and percolate but without any help from the office, lot of times it just gets shut down, because it gives those talents too much stroke, too much power and this was one of those situations because I was there and I saw it, and I had a lot of their matches at TV. They should’ve still been partners when that match went down at WrestleMania.”

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE is already working on their return to Saudi Arabia, PWInsider.com has confirmed. At one point, a date of Thursday 8/20 was pitched (believed to be for an event in Jeddah) but with the close proximity to Summerslam weekend and the likelyhood that temperatures would soar into the 100-120 degree range, that idea was shot down.

Currently, they are looking at a return in late October or early November.

Originally Posted by Fightful

According to PWInsider, WWE held a meeting backstage Monday ahead of WWE Raw in order to go over the latest information on the Coronavirus outbreak. WWE officials provided the roster with updated info on how they can protect themselves while traveling on the road and being exposed to possibly thousands of risks in the form of fans.

Fightful was told that the meeting was pretty run of the mill, but that WWE wanted to take the step and precaution in order to inform their roster to prevent some worst case scenarios.

The Coronavirus has spread to America, even hitting Tampa Bay, which will be the site of next month's WrestleMania event. There are dozens of other wrestling shows running throughout that week as well.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The Miz's new show on the USA Network has been announced.

The WWE star will host a show titled "Cannonball," which is a water-based sports competition show that will air on the network this summer. Miz will host the show alongside Emmy Award-winning television host Rosci Diaz and Simon Gibson.

Originally Posted by Observer

Despite the coronavirus and concerns around it affecting business, sports, and entertainment events around the world, WWE announced Wednesday they are moving ahead with this year's WrestleMania 36 in Tampa, FL.

"The health and safety of our fans, performers and employees are our top priorities and we are monitoring the situation closely with our partners and government officials in Tampa Bay. We remain committed to hosting WrestleMania at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, April 5, and like other entertainment properties in the U.S., there are currently no plans to cancel or postpone our upcoming events."

The cancellation of major spectator events hasn't hit the United States with cancellations or postponements even as new cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continue to pop up daily including several cases in the Tampa Bay area. Major League Baseball said they have no plans to cancel or postpone games while the NBA and NHL have continued their seasons without issue.

The main concern is with travelers coming from around the world to the WWE's biggest annual event plus all of the additional events throughout the week. As of this writing, there have been 80 reported cases of COVID-19 in the United States with nine deaths. 24 of those are travel related. More than 95,000 people worldwide have been affected with 3264 deaths, nearly all in mainland China.

Originally Posted by Observer

Basketball Hall of Famer and occasional professional wrestling personality Dennis Rodman will be featured on a new episode of WWE Untold later this month.

The Rodman episode of the documentary-style series will premiere on the WWE Network at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, March 22. It will cover Rodman & Hollywood Hogan's match against Karl Malone & DDP from WCW Bash at the Beach 1998.

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW has revealed their first set of post-Revolution roster rankings.

After losing the AEW World Championship to Jon Moxley at Saturday's pay-per-view, Chris Jericho is now ranked as the top contender in the men's division. MJF has moved up to second after his win against Cody.

Kris Statlander has fallen to third in the women's division after unsuccessfully challenging Nyla Rose for the AEW Women's Championship at Revolution. Hikaru Shida is currently ranked first.

The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson), who defeated SCU's Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian on the Revolution pre-show, are the new top contenders in the tag team division. The Young Bucks have fallen to second after losing to champions Kenny Omega & Hangman Page at Revolution.

The full rankings for this week are listed below:
Men's division --

Champion: Jon Moxley (7-0 singles record in 2020, 12-1-1 overall record)

• Chris Jericho (0-1 singles record in 2020, 10-2-1 overall record)
• MJF (3-0 singles record in 2020, 7-1 overall record)
• Kenny Omega (1-0 singles record in 2020, 17-6 overall record)
• Cody (3-1 singles record in 2020, 10-4-1 overall record)
• PAC (2-2 singles record in 2020, 7-6-1 overall record)

Women's division --

Champion: Nyla Rose (4-1 singles record in 2020, 8-4 overall record)

• Hikaru Shida (3-1 singles record in 2020, 8-4 overall record)
• Riho (3-1 singles record in 2020, 11-4 overall record)
• Kris Statlander (2-2 singles record in 2020, 6-4 overall record)
• Yuka Sakazaki (1-1 singles record in 2020, 1-4 overall record)
• Britt Baker (2-2 singles record in 2020, 10-6 overall record)

Tag team division --

Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (6-0 tag team record in 2020, 17-6 overall record for Omega, 12-8 overall record for Page)

• The Dark Order (5-0 tag team record in 2020, 9-2 overall record for Evil Uno, 9-2 overall record for Stu Grayson)
• The Young Bucks (2-2 tag team record in 2020, 12-9 overall record for Nick Jackson, 12-8 overall record for Matt Jackson)
• SCU (2-3 tag team record in 2020, 15-7 overall record for Scorpio Sky, 14-6 overall record for Frankie Kazarian
• Best Friends (3-2 tag team record in 2020, 9-12 overall record for Trent Barreta, 8-9 overall record for Chuck Taylor)
• Private Party (1-0 tag team record in 2020, 7-5 overall record for Marq Quen, 7-5 overall record for Isiah Kassidy)

Originally Posted by Observer

An NJPW legend is the latest addition to ROH's Pure title tournament.

ROH announced today that former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata will take part in the Pure title tournament. He's the 10th entrant confirmed for it, joining Doug Williams, Jonathan Gresham, Alex Shelley, Rocky Romero, Mark Haskins, Slex, Tracy Williams, Marty Scurll, and Fred Yehi

Originally Posted by PWI

The IIconics, Billie Kaye and Peyton Royce, are backstage at tonight's WWE NXT taping.

Originally Posted by PWI

Real Japan Pro-Wrestling chairman Shinma Kotobuki recently announced that Original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama is suffering from a condition he described as “close to Parkinson’s disease” which is making his walking difficult.

Real Pro Wrestling will be holding their “Original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama Strong Style Wrestling Vol. 5” event in Tokyo, Japan at Korakuen Hall on 3/19/20. They hope Sayama is able to make an appearance if he’s feeling well enough.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On the latest episode of Chris Jericho’s ‘Talk Is Jericho’ podcast, he told the story of the AEW World Championship going missing after winning the belt at All Out. The gist of the story is that Jericho carried the title in a grey sack and nobody knew the title was in the bag before he boarded a private jet. After Jericho and those who were with him got off the flight, they used a limousine service that was based in Tampa but the service could be used in Tallahassee as well. Jericho is of the belief that the driver had something to do with the belt being stolen but he has not been able to confirm that.

“So, as we’re getting ready to leave, I say, ‘We’re really hungry. We wanna go grab a bite. Let’s just go to a steakhouse. Let’s go to Outback’, and so there was an Outback kind of near and the guy says, ‘Let’s just go to Longhorn. It’s closer to where we need to go.’ Now I put it into my GPS and it was a little bit closer but it was pretty much the same thing. ‘Outback, Longhorn? Which one would you guys like to do? Let’s just do Longhorn, whatever.’ So for the people going, ‘Well why did you go to Longhorn?’ That’s the reason why, because the driver said, ‘Let’s go to Longhorn.’ See a pattern here? See a pattern starting to develop? So we go to Longhorn and we have some food, and I notice, probably 15 or 20 minutes into sitting there and it’s not a big restaurant, it’s not super packed and when you walk into the front door, we were sitting at a table that was in eyesight’s view of the front door. So, the guy comes in, the driver, and he goes to the front door and he starts kind of walking around the restaurant, and we see him come in. We’re like, ‘Isn’t that our driver? What’s he doing?’ He’s kind of just wandering around and just kind of hanging out… and he kind of wanders over to our table about five minutes later and says, ‘Hey, just wanted to check your address. Is that a residence or an apartment?’ And I’m like, ‘It’s a residence. What difference does it make? Just put it into your GPS.’ He goes, ‘Ah! Just wanted to make sure. I was just checking,’ and then he walks out. I’m like, ‘That’s peculiar. Like why would he walk in here, wander around for five minutes then come over and ask me a completely irrelevant question to where we’re going and then walk out?’ Huh. Almost like he was, I don’t know, maybe stalling inside the restaurant, right?’

So we’re hanging out and we finish up our dinner and we’re eating and the guy comes in again, about 20 minutes after that, and he comes in and says, ‘Your title belt is missing.’ I said, ‘What!?’ He goes, ‘Your title belt, the championship belt is missing.’ Now first of all I’m thinking, ‘How do you know there’s a title belt in there? It’s in a bag.’ It’s not the job of a driver to go through people’s bags when they’re inside. I go, ‘What do you mean it’s missing!?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, you put it in there. I came out and it was gone’, and I’m like, ‘What the f*ck are you talking about!? What is it — what!? What are you talking about?’ So we go outside, and here’s the thing: it was my wife’s birthday that week so I bought her a big bouquet of flowers and a vase to take home, and when we go out there, the vase that was in the back of the truck is now in the backseat. It’s gone from the trunk area to the backseat, and I’m like, ‘Well how do you know the thing is gone?’ He said, ‘Well I just went to go look in the back’ and it’s obvious when he looked in the back, that the flowers fell out onto the ground. He never mentioned the fact that the flowers fell out onto the ground. He just mentioned the fact that the belt was gone. So I just start flipping out because I’m like, ‘You are a stupid…’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Joey Janela announced that Lord Adrean and Tahir2x, who are the individuals that have been going viral on social media for their Walmart wrestling, are scheduled to appear at Spring Break 4.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Lita did an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to promote she, Gail Kim and Christy Hemme’s ‘KAYfABE’ wrestling show that they are planning on launching. Lita was asked does she think this project could damage her relationship with WWE and she stated that she can’t be worried about making anyone upset and is hoping WWE would be proud of them for their venture.

“Our goal is to actually make progress and make this business better. I would like to think they’re business-minded and can see that. This project means so much to me, so whatever it takes, I want to make this project work. I can’t spend time worrying about making someone mad. We’re making decisions for the purity of this project and to make it happen, these are conversations that need to happen in wrestling in order for us to move forward. While they could not like it, I’m hoping they are proud of us as business people.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

Teddy Hart has been arrested for the second time in 2020 on the afternoon of March 4th, in Richmond, Virginia. Further details regarding arrest are currently uncertain.

Hart was previously arrested on February 12th, also in Richmond. Hart was charged with three counts of possession, possession of a Schedule III controlled substance and possession with intent to sell and distribute.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Nick Aldis has hit 500 days as NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

Aldis, a two-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, won the title from Cody in a two-out-of-three falls match at NWA 70th Anniversary Show on October 21, 2018. Since his victory on that night, Aldis has gone on to defend the title against the likes of Marty Scurll, Jimmy Havoc, Billy Gunn, James Storm, Ricky Morton and Flip Gordon.

Should Aldis hold the title for another five days, he will surpass Blue Demon Jr for the longest reign of this millennium, and the second-longest reign since the 70s.

Originally Posted by Observer

Following a well-received pay-per-view on Saturday night, last night's AEW Dynamite averaged 906,000 viewers, up 4.7 percent from last week. Even better, the show was up 16.7 percent in the 18-49 demo, averaging a 0.35 rating and finishing fifth on cable for the night in that category.

Over on the USA Network, NXT ratings were essentially the exact same as last week. The show averaged 718,000 viewers, up 1,000 from last Wednesday. In the 18-49 demo, NXT had a 0.23 rating, identical to last week. NXT finished 20th on cable in that demo.

Dynamite topped NXT in all demos except for tying in people over 50. Both shows had a 0.34 rating in that category.

AEW's strongest demo was men 18-49, where they almost doubled NXT with a 0.49 rating to NXT's 0.26.

Originally Posted by PWI

Cain Velasquez tweeted a photo of himself with Ronda Rousey today as they were both at Titan Tower in Stamford, CT.

The first photo is from the company cafeteria. The second photo is from a hallway on the executive floor.

Had the pleasure of running into the pioneer that definitely also inspired my interest in the sport. Great to see you @rondarousey. @wwe pic.twitter.com/IipeX4ZK1Y
— Cain Velasquez (@cainmma) March 5, 2020

No word yet what either were doing at WWE HQ, but one would think with Wrestlemania coming, perhaps Rousey was there to discuss what her role could be going forward.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Paige’s boyfriend, Ronnie Radke tweeted out that Paige underwent emergency surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. Paige posted the following update:

“Just an update. I’m fine you guys! No more pain and healthy af! Haha just another small speed bump. I’m used to it. Haha so thankful for @RonnieRadke”

Originally Posted by Observer

Rip Oliver, a Pacific Northwest wrestling legend who held that area's Heavyweight title more times than anyone in history, passed away today at the age of 67.

Born Lawrence Richard Oliver on October 6, 1952, he had entered hospice care due to heart failure more than a week ago and had been in weakened health for some time after multiple heart attacks.

Oliver came from Florida, and worked as a prelim wrestler before arriving in Oregon in August 1980 as Rip "The Crippler" Oliver. He and Buddy Rose were the area's top heels until Rose turned babyface after being turned on by The Clan, which at the time was Oliver, Dynamite Kid, and The Assassin (Dave Sierra) ...

He held the Pacific Northwest singles title a record 12 times, along with 18 reigns as tag team champion during his heyday, which ended when going to the WWF in 1987. He was not pushed and quit the promotion after only a few months, but in being portrayed as a jobber on WWF television, which aired in Oregon and Washington, it made it impossible for him to be pushed as a top guy in the Northwest, with Lynn "The Grappler" Denton taking over as booker and top heel.

During his short WWF run, Oliver, under a mask as Super Black Ninja, lost a quick squash to The Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental title on a Saturday Night's Main Event.

Originally Posted by PWI

OVW Wrestling, one of the most popular and widely-respected wrestling promotions in the world since its inception in 1993, is thrilled to announce today that they've teamed up with leading broadcast and cable network Youtoo America to air their flagship weekly one hour series to over 32 Million Households across the USA.

OVW Wrestling will premiere on Youtoo America Friday evening, April 3rd with the kickoff to a brand new era in professional wrestling.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Matt Hardy was pulled from his signing appearance at ‘The Big Event’ on Saturday in New York. Promoters for that show have been told that if they are booking WWE talent, AEW talent cannot be booked. Hardy was booked for the signing while he was still with WWE. Matt Hardy noted on Twitter that he is still appearing at ‘The Big Event’.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

TV Insider chatted with AEW Women’s World Champion Nyla Rose. When Nyla won the AEW Women’s Title from Riho, it was not mentioned that she’s a transgender woman and she’s glad that a big deal was not made of it.

“For me, it has been welcoming that they don’t make it a spectacle. They don’t make it a check mark. It’s one of those things that is there. Everyone knows about it, but nobody talks about it. That’s not a matter of us wanting to be hush-hush or hide this. They’re not making it a thing because it shouldn’t be a thing. You are a person and a performer first. That’s what I love so much and makes me feel so proud to be part of this company because they are helping normalize these ideals. We don’t even have a sense or consensus of how many trans people there are because so many people are afraid to speak out and speak up and live so openly. That’s because there is such a stigma of what being trans is. With representation on weekly television and with AEW being the company that it is on the scale that it is, with TNT and the scale they are on, they see me as a person. They see me as someone going out there and doing their job. The transness being secondary or even third to anything else. That is a beautiful statement. It shouldn’t matter and doesn’t. Hopefully, we can get to the point where people stop making it be the front runner.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

During the pre-WWE Backstage Q&A session, Jeff Hardy learned via a tweet that WWE owns the rights to the “No More Words” theme song and Jeff pleaded with WWE to let him use the theme.

“Yes! Oh my God, yes! That would be the best thing ever and as far as motivating me, it would change my wrestling career. I’ve been dying to get that song back and now that I see this, and if it’s truth to it then WWE — there’s no reason why they shouldn’t do that so please WWE, let me come out to No More Words.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Josh Barnett announced that the upcoming Bloodsport show in Tampa, Florida will be a tournament-style show titled ‘The Gotch-Robinson Cup’. It’s a one night tournament and those announced for the show will compete in single elimination bouts to determine the tourney winner.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

In an update on Teddy Hart provided by PWInsider, Teddy Hart was arrested for violating house arrest and he appeared in court on March 5th at 9 AM.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Following Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ appearance on AEW: Dynamite, Randy Orton tweeted out a GIF of him delivering an RKO to Roberts and Jericho was in the GIF in the background. The former AEW World Champion caught wind of Orton’s tweet and thanked him for watching Dynamite.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Matt Hardy is officially a free agent after letting his WWE contract expire at midnight on Mar. 2. In his Thoughts From The Throne video where he made the announcement, Hardy cited being on a different page from WWE in terms of his creative role.

Appearing on Busted Open Radio, Hardy elaborated on the creative differences between him and the company, while also expressing his gratitude towards Vince McMahon.

"I am very grateful, if it wasn't for Vince McMahon giving me this opportunity 20+ years ago, I wouldn't have had this life that I have. I will always be grateful to him for that. Even if there are things later on that we didn't see eye to eye on, that's business. When it comes to Vince and WWE, I've kind of aged out. My brand of entertainment and the way I have to be utilized isn't one of their priorities and that's fine. I understand that and it's no issue. I don't have any resentment towards anyone. I've very happy with the time I've had there and happy I got to come back and leave WWE as an employee waving the flag. That WrestleMania 33 moment was amazing. I'm very happy that I got the opportunity to do a version of Broken Matt Hardy there. It wasn't all that I would have liked it to be. It would have been nice if I had more say in what I was doing, but it is what it is. They treated me great the whole time. I had great conversations with everyone, but creatively, we're just on different pages. Nothing against them, it was just time for me to go somewhere else to maximize and optimize my creativity, especially if I want to be in a prominent role for the last three or four years I have left to do this," he said.

Originally Posted by Slik (Post 5325395)

Meltzer mentioned today Vince has 'cooled' on Shayna and might be going in a different direction for Becky Lynch at WM now.

I saw some speculation on the observer board this could mean Liv Morgan vs Becky Lynch but Vince has apparently 'cooled' on Liv Morgan as well for not 'grabbing the brass ring' during the Lana feud. Some speculation Nia Jax might be brought back to face Becky at Mania if Vince passes on Shayna now.

Originally Posted by Seph (Post 5325452)

Considering that Ronda was just at HQ, maybe she's going to get the match with Becky. If they aren't going with Shayna, then who better than Ronda really? They already have built in backstory too so it's not like they need long to build the feud. Only need to find a way to remove Shayna from the equation that makes sense and not fall back on another triple threat.

Originally Posted by Observer Newsletter

WWE has what on paper looks to be the weakest PPV show they have offered in a long time with the Elimination Chamber show on 3/8 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

The show comes just ten days after Super Showdown, meaning just one Raw and two Smackdowns to set up the show. Plus, I guess to set up WrestleMania’s main event faster, the decision was made to drop the Chamber main event, a six-way men’s match for the Universal title shot, and instead just have Roman Reigns come on Smackdown to challenge Bill Goldberg directly.

Neither Goldberg or Brock Lesnar are defending the titles, and at this point top names like Reigns, Drew McIntyre, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton aren’t on the show ...

At press time, the entire lower bowl of the arena is set up along with 52 percent of the upper bowl, which would be for roughly 10,000 seats. Philadelphia is traditionally a very strong big show market. The secondary market get-in price is $53, so there’s not a case of a lot of tickets flooding that market at this point, nor a super high demand either.

Not only is the Smackdown men’s match off, but last week on the show they had Lacey Evans talk about entering the Chamber to get a shot at the women’s title. But this week, not a word was said about it, and Naomi, who was originally booked to face Bayley at WrestleMania, scored a pin on Bayley in a tag match, which would seem to indicate a title match is still coming ...

Other matches are ... a no DQ match with A.J. Styles vs. Aleister Black. The latter is the most intriguing, since beating Black a second time in a week will put him in that category of people fans lose interest in based on seeing that the company has done so. But with Styles facing Undertaker at WrestleMania, he has to be protected. There are ways to do outside interference finishes and the no DQ is obviously there for a reason.

Originally Posted by Observer

Radio show host Peter Rosenberg is returning to WWE in a familiar role.

WWE issued a press release today announcing that Rosenberg will return as an analyst for their pay-per-view pre-shows starting with Elimination Chamber this Sunday. Rosenberg "will also serve as a special correspondent for various WWE Network shows and upcoming specials."

Originally Posted by Observer

The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship will officially be on the line at ROH Supercard of Honor XIV.

ROH confirmed this morning that Nick Aldis will defend his NWA title against PCO at Supercard of Honor. The match was set up at the end of ROH's Free Enterprise show last month.

PCO & Marty Scurll defeated Aldis & Rush in the main event of Free Enterprise. After dissension between Aldis and Rush, PCO pinned Aldis to get the win.

Scurll then cut a promo about his NWA title match against Aldis at the Crockett Cup on Sunday, April 19. Scurll said he would personally write Aldis a check for $500,000 if Aldis beats him. Scurll also said Aldis would face PCO at Supercard of Honor.

That would have set up a match between the ROH and NWA champions, but PCO lost the ROH World Championship to Rush last weekend. That was in a triple threat match that also included Mark Haskins. The finish involved Aldis Interfering and hitting PCO with the NWA title belt.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Su Yung's Impact Wrestling deal has expired and she is now officially a free agent, PWInsider.com has confirmed.

Yung, 30, is at tonight's Impact TV taping, but she would be free to negotiate and sign elsewhere.

Originally Posted by PWI

Former NWA and ECW World Champion Terry Funk sent word that that he will be cancelling his scheduled appearance and signing at tomorrow's Big Event in NYC.

Funk, 75 years old, continues to deal with a number of health issues and will not be able to make the travel from Amarillo, Texas to New York (multiple flights from point A to point B) in order to make the appearance. His forthcoming appearance in Philadelphia should be considered iffy at best as well.

Funk was very upset about not being able to make the trip, feeling he was letting fans down.

Originally Posted by PWI

King County in Washington State issued the following announcement:

Stadium worker tests positive for COVID-19; Professional sporting events to continue in King County, with patrons urged to follow public health guidelines

March 5, 2020

A part-time employee at CenturyLink Field who worked at the Feb. 22 Seattle Dragons game has tested positive for COVID-19, though risk to fans who attended is low, according to county health officials.

As of now, Seattle’s professional sports organizations – Dragons, First & Goal/Seahawks, Mariners, and Sounders FC – will continue with scheduled events. The teams are in touch with local health officials and their respective leagues on a regular basis, as this public health issue continues to evolve.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Regarding the makeup of the WWE creative staff, we were told by someone with knowledge of the situation that there are seven females on the staff. We were told there are four women on Raw and three on SmackDown, one of whom is a writer’s assistant but can pitch ideas.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Tickets for AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in May are selling very well. A non-AEW affiliated account that monitors ticket sales is listing the May 23rd event at 9,241 tickets sold with a set-up for 11,083 seats. We spoke with an AEW official who told us that the figures were ‘in the right neighborhood’. (NOTE: We originally had listed the ticket sales for the May 27th episode of Dynamite at the MGM Grand but have corrected the item to reflect that the figures are for ‘Double or Nothing’).

Originally Posted by Fightful

Now six days into March of 2020, there is one major story looming over every top professional wrestling promotion currently active, where will Matt Hardy go next? ...

Speaking exclusively with Sports Illustrated, Matt expanded upon his thought process, revealing that he is in talks with all promotions including very recent conversations with Triple H about NXT.

“My goal is to legitimately surprise people and draw emotion from them. I always want to entertain the audience and keep them guessing. I’ll make a decision within the next 30 days, and it could be by next week. It all depends on how everything comes together,” Matt would say. “I am speaking with AEW, and I am very close with the Young Bucks. We’ve been great friends for a long time. They understand this business and know how to break the fourth wall and have fun with all of this. They really are special. I’ve also spoken with IMPACT and I spoke with the NWA. I had great conversations just this week with Triple H about NXT. I’m not sure where I’m going to go. From a character perspective, I want to go to an Arcadia. That’s where I can take the second coming of ‘Broken Matt’ and build upon it. I need a canvas where I can paint and collaborate.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE stock was at $42.70 when the stock market closed today.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Changes have been made to the NXT UK announce team. The new team was revealed during Friday's NXT UK tapings in Coventry ...

The NXT UK announce team now consists of Andy Shepherd and Nigel McGuinness. Shepherd is a new addition to the crew after previously working on NXT UK Kickoff shows and doing ring announcing for NXT UK. McGuinness, who also works as an announcer on NXT, has been in-and-out of the role of NXT UK announcer since the brand started. The most recent NXT UK announce team consistent of Tom Phillips and Aiden English.

Taking Shepherd's role as the ring announcer is Francesca Brown. Brown has been featured in movies such as "Breathe" and "Hunter's Moon,"as well as TV series "Lookalikes" as she has a resemblance to Katy Perry.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The New Day is launching a tournament to crown the greatest TV show of all time and the tournament will start on next week's episode of the "Feel The Power" podcast. You can check out the full tournament at this link.

Originally Posted by Observer

Raw last night set a couple of new lows, but also had one of the best ratings patterns in a long time.

The basic gist is that the audience was at a low point averaging 2.16 million viewers over the three hours, the lowest for a non-holiday show in modern history that didn't have a major competing sports event. The prior low in that category was 2.17 million viewers on February 3.

The first hour audience of 2.16 million was also a new low for a non-holiday modern show without major sports competition, substantially lower than the previous low mark of 2.25 million on February 24. What makes it worse is that the show came the day after a pay-per-view ...

Raw still took the top three spots in the 18-49 rankings ...

The low first hour is a bad sign because usually after a PPV, the first hour shows a good increase and the overall episode is higher. This indicates there wasn't much interest in the Elimination Chamber follow-up.

The second hour being higher than the first hour happens more frequently during Daylight Savings Time and the low first hour is because people for the next few months are more likely to start the show later ...

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.16 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.22 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.11 million viewers

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

On the surface, it’s a letdown given the week-long promotion of Edge’s return to the show for the first time since the injury angle on January 27th with Randy Orton ...

It’s a trend that has been emerging over the past month where the second hour has either grown or dropped slightly with less of a third-hour tune out.

That said, this week’s number had one of the lowest opening hours in the history of the show, far fewer people are tuning in, although those viewers are sticking around at a larger percentage and the show isn’t turning them off.

Originally Posted by Observer

OTT Wrestling issued a statement noting that their ScrapperMania shows this weekend are currently scheduled to go on as planned. OTT asked fans not to attend if they feel unwell with coronavirus symptoms, if they’ve traveled to Ireland from an area with presumed ongoing community transmission in the last 14 days, or if in the past 14 days they have been in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Originally Posted by Observer

Adam Brooks won't be making his ROH debut at Friday's 18th Anniversary pay-per-view after all.

ROH has announced that -- due to travel issues -- Brooks will no longer be appearing at their 18th Anniversary PPV. Jeff Cobb is replacing Brooks and will face Slex at the show.

It was confirmed last month that Brooks has signed with ROH. Him facing Slex at the Anniversary PPV was going to be a matchup between Australian wrestling standouts.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The management of wXw consisting of Tassilo Jung, Felix Kohlenberg, and Dennis Birkendahl held a press conference with members of the media this past Saturday during 16 Carat Gold weekend. The full press conference can be watched below courtesy of Headlock. wXw has always had a tremendous relationship with its media with no restrictions on the subject matter and that was clearly seen here with questions asked about David Starr ...

On David Starr’s exit from the company after the Title vs. Career match with Bobby Gunns on Saturday:

"We sat down together with David Starr before the show and pretty much told him after the show say whatever you would like to say. It’s your decision if it’s going to be inside the storyline universe of wXw and this promo would be included in the release or it would be a live promo that is more the person behind David Starr speaking to the people in attendance. The latter was chosen and David said whatever he liked to say, and we appreciate this and we also appreciate the kind words that he posted regarding us on Twitter and said personally to wXw and the people behind wXw and we’re going to miss him a whole lot. We will not comment on the decision itself, but I wanted to make really sure that people know how much we appreciate David Starr as a person and a talent. Obviously, you have seen that this match got set up a couple of months ago, so it was a decision that made a couple of months ago."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is the biggest story in the world and that trickles down to professional wrestling with many questions regarding its impact on upcoming shows and specifically related to WrestleMania Weekend. The industry is in a state of wait-and-see because no one can predict what the days and weeks will entail and measures that may be forced up sports and entertainment events in the United States. We have seen the impact the outbreak has had overseas with many promotions in Japan forced to cancel events or run shows inside of empty buildings.

Beginning today, Major League Baseball, the NBA, NHL, and Major League Soccer are restricting media access in the club’s locker rooms as the league’s first major preventable measures. If the outbreak continues and games start being canceled, then that would represent a heightened risk that would have to apply to major promotions in the U.S. like WWE and AEW.

It is hard to single out professional wrestling when it comes to the greater worldly concerns but for any promoters running WrestleMania Weekend to lose out on those shows is devastating. It makes travel arrangements difficult with so much hanging in the balance and everyone must wait to see if things get better or worse.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

In a recent SEC filing, WWE has updated Paul Levesque’s title and is now recognized as the company’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development. Prior to this change, he was listed as the EVP of Talent, Live Events & Creative going back to August 2011. Levesque’s 2019 salary was listed at $706,019 in the proxy statement with an additional $502,146 in stock awards, and $2,016,977 in his performance contract that includes royalties for a total of $3,328,092. Vince McMahon’s listed salary is $1,400,000 but goes up to $3,503,703 with stock awards, and other compensations. Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics went through the proxy statement and noted that Shane McMahon made $2,082,011 working as a performer for the company.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The WWE stock closed at $41.19 on Tuesday.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

This Sunday night, a new episode of ‘Autopsy’ on Reelz will focus on the final hours of Chris Benoit’s life from June 2007. The network has put out the following description of Sunday’s episode that airs at 8 pm Eastern:

In this investigative medical documentary series we look at the lives and deaths of the biggest names in the entertainment history. Through a combination of interviews with family and friends, archive footage and dramatic reconstructions, we tell these stories and unpick the – sometimes mysterious – circumstances around their deaths. Over a June weekend in 2007 , Canadian wrestler Chris Benoit, killed his wife and his 7-year-old son at his exclusive Georgia home before hanging himself in a horrific double murder-suicide that shocked wrestling world. At the time of his death, Chris Benoit was one of the premier athletes in the whole of World Wrestling Entertainment stable. A former World champion, he was widely regarded as one of the best technical wrestlers of his and any generation and at 40-years-old was still drawing huge audiences. So why would such an elite athlete, who had achieved so much and lived a seemingly glamorous life with his beautiful wife and child choose to kill himself and his family? This drama-documentary explores the medical factors that led to Chris Benoit’s death and investigates the tragic events that led to this tragic murder suicide.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The NWA has announced the first four teams that will take part in the Crockett Cup tournament on pay-per-view next month.

On Tuesday night, the promotion revealed Brody King & Flip Gordon, Flamita & Rey Horus, The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express, and Thomas Latimer & Royce Isaacs as the first four teams to enter.

They will be announcing three additional teams along with a ‘wild card’ team that will be determined in a battle royal that night.

The battle royal is open to singles wrestlers and tag teams and the final two participants in the match will make up the eighth team in the Crockett Cup. On Tuesday, they announced that Tim Storm, Zicky Dice, and Ricky Starks would be part of the battle royal.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Authors of Pain member Rezar suffered an arm injury during the main event of WWE Raw.

Fightful Select reports that Rezar tagged out of the match and informed Seth Rollins of the injury before staying on the sidelines for the majority of the match. Rezar did get involved in the post-match angle. It has not been confirmed the extent of Rezar's injury.

Originally Posted by Fightful

When it comes to Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart did not hold back when asked about his opinion.

During a live Q & A session, Hart was asked about his opinion on The Hulkster and if he likes him. Needless to say, Hart responded by calling Hogan a "piece of sh*t."

"Do I like Hulk Hogan? No, I don't. I think he is a phony piece of sh*t," Hart said

Originally Posted by Observer

Snickers is again partnering with WWE for this year's WrestleMania.

WWE and Mars, Incorporated have announced "an expansion of their long-standing partnership for 2020 in which Snickers will once again serve as the exclusive presenting partner of WrestleMania." This is the fifth straight year that Snickers has been the presenting sponsor for the event.

The partnership will include WWE wrestlers taking part in Snickers' new "Fix the World" ad campaign. There will be three custom commercials produced. The first will air on the March 23 episode of Raw, the second will air on the March 27 episode of SmackDown, and the third will air during WrestleMania 36.

Originally Posted by PWI

Tampa, Florida Mayor Jane Castor was interviewed this afternoon by Drew Garabo on 102.5 The Bone FM in Tampa, Florida about the city's response to the coronavirus and how they would be handling large scale public events in the city, including next month's Wrestlemania 36 week.

Castor was immediately asked about Wrestlemania 36 and whether the events that week will still take place. Castor said they are still assessing the situation. They hoped to still hold it but they are still assessing.

They have a commission working on it and will be having a meeting tomorrow at 12 PM Noon to determine what they will do regarding the status of not just Wrestlemania, but all other large scale events in the city.

Castor said they anticipated they would have coronavirus cases in Tampa. The virus in most cases is like a mild case of the flu. The issue is the ease of the transmission. It's not if, but when it hit their city. They want people to have accurate information and to take steps to protect themselves and they'll be able to prevent the spread of the virus across Tampa and the country ...

On balancing the health and well being vs. the economic windfall of Wrestlemania, Castor said the health and well being is important but she also has to look at the economic impact for those who need the paychecks that come with the economic positives of having a major event. It's a responsibility she takes seriously.

When asked who's final decision it would be, Castor said WWE can 'weigh in' but they locally would have the final call. That's why they are having the meeting tomorrow, so they can make the best informed decision and be on top of the latest information from the CDC and the State of Florida.

Originally Posted by PWI

We've been asked how WWE is preparing for the coronavirus in terms of their office staffing. We have been told by multiple sources that work for the company that as of this week, WWE started a rotation where certain departments will be working from home/telecommuting so that WWE can plan out logistics if they need to pull the trigger on having the company's employees work outside of their Stamford, CT headquarters. The process will likely continue over at least the next week or so. A number of film studios and major corporations are enacting similar measures.

In regard to a rumor making the round, there is ZERO truth to a story claiming Wrestlemania would be bumped up to Madison Square Garden on 3/22.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Jerry Lawler thinks the show will go on.

Appearing on Cerrito Live, Jerry Lawler was asked about the coronavirus and whether the disease will impact WrestleMania 36.

"I don't think it's going to affect WrestleMania at all. I'm not trying to downplay it but when you listen to what has happened in the past, it's almost like a cycle. These kind of things happen every now and again; there's nothing you can do about it except react to it as best we can. I remember all these kinds of influenza and viruses that we've had. Just the regular flu comes around every year and kills a bunch of people. You can get vaccinated and do you what you can; everyone tries to be as healthy as possible. It's just a fact of life. Remember there was the Bird Flu, the Hong Kong Flu, Swine Flu, SARS. All of these things happen every few years and this is another one of those things that we'll get through. That's the way life is."

He finished by saying, "WrestleMania could go on and it could be a total pay-per-view [empty arena] if worst came to worst."

Originally Posted by WrestlingInc

It's looking more like the coronavirus will end up having a significant impact on WrestleMania 36 Week in Tampa, Florida.

Tampa area reporter Jon Alba noted on Twitter today that there could be an update on the status of WrestleMania 36 within the next 24 hours, which may not be good for WWE.

"I do believe we will hear an update on the status of #WrestleMania within 24 hours or so. And I would suspect things aren't trending in a positive direction. #WWE," Alba tweeted.

Furthermore, @Wrestlevotes also indicated today that things aren't looking good ...

"I asked a few sources about Mania & the Corona situation. Some had no info to relay. One said: 'if it can go on as planned, it will' Safe to say WWE just doesn't know yet. All very fluid. All TBD," they wrote earlier this afternoon.

"Update: It's not looking good now," @Wrestlevotes wrote in a follow-up tweet this evening. They continued, "Guys, I want it to still happen too. Trust me. But it's not looking good at the moment. I would think they look to reschedule rather than cancel but time will tell."

As noted earlier today at this link, the City of Tampa Twitter account and the Visit Tampa Bay Twitter account told fans that WrestleMania 36 is currently scheduled to go on as planned.

The World Health Organization announced today that the coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic.

Originally Posted by PWI

The 3/10 episode of WWE Backstage on FS1, featuring Mark Henry appearing, brought in 35,000 overnight viewers. If we receive an updated, final number, we will update.

Originally Posted by Observer

John Cena's next appearance on WWE television is taking place this Friday.

WWE has announced that Cena will appear on SmackDown this Friday night. The show is taking place at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan

Originally Posted by Observer

Matt Hardy is heading to Northeast Wrestling for his first announced post-WWE match.

Northeast Wrestling announced today that Hardy will be in action at their Wrestlefest XXIV show later this month: "Matt Hardy returns to Northeast Wrestling for his 1st match since becoming the most sought after Free Agent in Wrestling. Northeast Wrestling LIVE! in Waterbury, Connecticut on Friday, March 27th. He will also be a part of the preshow Meet and Greet. Get your tickets now at northeastwrestling.com"

Hardy's opponent for the show has yet to be revealed.

Originally Posted by Observer

KENTA and Tomohiro Ishii are the first two NJPW wrestlers confirmed for this year's ROH-NJPW War of the Worlds tour.

ROH announced today that KENTA and Ishii are set for all four shows on the War of the Worlds tour. The dates and locations for it are:

Wednesday, May 6: Buffalo RiverWorks, Buffalo, New York
Thursday, May 7: Ted Reeve Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Saturday, May 9: Wings Event Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Sunday, May 10: The Odeum Expo Center, Villa Park, Illinois

Originally Posted by Observer

NJPW has revealed when tickets are going on sale for their return to Madison Square Garden.

A ticket pre-sale for NJPW Wrestle Dynasty will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, April 8. Registration is now open for the pre-sale mailing list. NJPW wrote that codes will be emailed near the pre-sale date.

Tickets will then go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern on Friday, April 10 ...

Wrestle Dynasty is taking place at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, August 22, which is the same night as NXT TakeOver: Boston and the night before this year's SummerSlam.

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor issued the following statement:
ROH UPDATE ON COVID-19

Ring of Honor, home of the “Best Wrestling on the Planet,” will be proceeding as planned with all current events and activities.

ROH is mounting its 18th Anniversary (Friday, March 13th) and Past vs Present (Saturday, March 14th) shows this weekend in Las Vegas at Sam’s Town Live Casino.

The safety and health of our fans, talents and staff are always of top priority and we are actively following information regarding COVID-19, known as Coronavirus. We are closely monitoring all information being made known by the government, the CDC and WHO to the public - as the situation continues to develop.

ROH cares by being proactive in taking the utmost safety precautions as recommended for all live events and recommends that all fans take their own personal safety precautions as well. Additionally, fans are urged to contact help@rohwrestling.com if they have any concerns about their health or safety at an upcoming event -- and ROH will work with them to provide solutions.

As the situation continues to be monitored, any necessary changes to the event schedule and/or resolutions will be provided expeditiously.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

The Collective and Game Changer Wrestling put out a statement on Twitter which read that all of their scheduled events for WrestleMania weekend will continue on as planned regardless of the decision that is made tomorrow concerning WrestleMania.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WWE’s Angel Garza drew coverage from TMZ after he was kissed by a fan in attendance at Monday Night RAW in Washington DC. After Garza’s segment and match, he responded to a tweet which read that the Coronavirus is everywhere and what he allowed was not safe. Garza responded to the tweet and noted that the Coronavirus does not exist and everything is in people’s minds.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Sports Illustrated chatted with Bret Hart to reflect on the life and career of Owen Hart. The two parties specifically talked about Bret and Owen’s WrestleMania 10 match and Bret feels that-that match set the table for wrestlers like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk who are/were of similar stature to Bret and Owen.

“I think it certainly opened the door for guys, like Punk and Daniel Bryan, that did some great wrestling after my era. For our time, Owen and I was a great match. The hardest thing about the match with Owen that people overlook is that we’d never wrestled each other before. When you’ve never danced with someone before, you don’t know what you’re going to get. For our first match, that was a really good match.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hart shared that the majority of the finishes to his matches were his idea and the only one he can recall that wasn’t his was the WWF World Heavyweight Championship match against Bob Backlund at the 1994 Survivor Series.

“All the endings to my matches were mine. The only match I can think of, off the top of my head, that the finish was done the way I was told was probably that Survivor Series where I lost to Backlund. But that whole match was my match. It was a very complicated match. Vince laid the outline, and then was like, ‘Figure it out. This is how it’s going to happen.’ It had the towel and all that. Every single person’s timing was so important to the other wrestlers. There’s Davey Boy, my mom, my dad, Owen, Bob Backlund, myself. A lot of moving pieces. That’s what I love about that match as you watch it back. That was a complicated story to tell but it was smooth as butter, first time we ever did it, last time we ever did, and a great moment.”

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE's stock finished at $38.72 per share when the stock market closed.

Originally Posted by Observer

On a night where most of the viewing audience was concerned with a lot other than professional wrestling, both Wednesday night shows took a ratings hit.

AEW Dynamite averaged 766,000 viewers on TNT, down 15 percent from last week. In the 18-49 demo, the show was down over 25 percent, averaging just a 0.26 rating. That's AEW's second lowest number ever in that category, nearly matching the 0.25 the show did on December 18.

NXT was down just 2.9 percent, averaging 697,000 viewers. In 18-49, the show averaged a 0.21 rating, down 8.7 percent from last week. That's NXT's lowest number in that category since January 15.

Dynamite ranked 25th on cable in 18-49, while NXT was 42nd. Both were well lower than usual and the shows were obviously hit hardest in the 18-49 demo. News shows were way up and Donald Trump's presidential address to the nation aired directly opposite both AEW and NXT.

Originally Posted by PWI

STARDOM announced today that the 3/29/20 event in Nagoya has been canceled.

As of now, the 3/24/20 show at Korakuen Hall and the 3/28/20 event in Shizuoka will still go but they are not selling additional reservation tickets for those dates. The Korakuen Hall show is the Cinderella Tournament 2020.

Originally Posted by PWI

It was widely expected that WWE and/or the government in Tampa, FL would make an announcement today regarding whether WrestleMania will take place a little over three weeks from now. There was even a press conference where the subject was broached, and botched. Badly in fact. It was announced by Hillsbough County official, Lesley "Les" Miller, Jr. that WWE had held a press conference earlier in the day concerning their biggest event of the year.

Of course, that was not the case. So, at the end of their press conference, they said there was still time to decide the event’s fate and if no decision has been made by next week, they will address the subject again.

Folks, this is just a different form of stupid. It really is.

No matter how you feel about COVID-19 and its spread in the US, the fact of the matter is there are now so many reasons that WWE should just go ahead and cancel the show. Each day that they don’t, they look more and more out of touch as to what is going on in the world today ...

Well, as much as we know the Vince McMahon mentality of “The Show Must Go On”, which he made crystal clear by continuing the Over The Edge PPV in 1999 when Owen Hart died in front of the crowd and yet he continued the PPV, the answer to the question of “for what” is probably money. Insurance money. It could well be that if WWE cancels, they don’t get paid. If the show is canceled by the city of Tampa, then they do.

If that is the case then make a deal with the city of Tampa to bring the show back in June, or whenever you can do it. Maybe it’s November this year. Whatever, just make the deal. The Governor of Florida is already saying he doesn’t want large gatherings in the state, but it’s out of his control. But this situation will not get better in three weeks. If you look at the arc in the countries that have preceded us with this virus, we probably have at least six weeks until we start going on the downward side of the curve. And that’s if we get lucky ...

But, they could win the war of perception. With all of the sporting events going dark, WWE has a golden opportunity to get eyeballs on their product. Even if they have to relocate their TV to the Performance Center, which may be a very real possibility, they will still be able to provide seven hours of sports-like TV a week for viewers who have very few other choices.

Will those people want to support a company that couldn’t get out of its own way and move WrestleMania, clearly not thinking about the safety of its fans over their own bottom line? Why take the chance? Even if the show does take place, it will now be in front of a far less than full stadium anyway, making your signature event look second rate. Do the right thing and postpone WrestleMania WWE and do it now, while it’s your decision and it’s not forced on you.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE’s current situation in regards to WrestleMania’s status is complex and part of the reason for it has to do with insurance.

On a recent episode of Fightful’s “List & Ya Boy” podcast, Fightful owner Jimmy Van spoke on the ramifications WWE could face by canceling WrestleMania. The economic effect of canceling the show would largely depend on the type of insurance WWE has for WrestleMania and whether or not the city of Tampa ordered WWE to cancel it.

If there was a recommendation, and not an order, from the city to postpone or cancel the show and WWE followed through, the company may not be able to recover some of the financial losses that come with such a decision because of the insurance.

“The answer comes down to insurance coverage. In pro sports, most leagues opt to pay for premium coverage called communicable disease-related losses. If a pro league acts on the recommendation to cancel as opposed to the order to cancel, they may not be able to trigger coverage, that they may not be able to recoup losses through insurance. That’s what we first saw in Ohio. They recommended canceling events and the Columbus Blue Jackets came out and said they are going to go on as planned. It was because of insurance. But now, Ohio has come out and said, ‘We’re ordering you to do this,'" Van said.

Although what kind of insurance WWE has is unknown, one can surmise that it is a setup similar to those pro leagues. As far as what he believes will happen, Van thinks WWE will do WrestleMania if the city of Tampa issues a recommendation and not an order to cancel or postpone.

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE released the trailer for their forthcoming Quibi series "Fight Like A Girl" in advance of that digital platform's launch:

Confidence. Focus. Inner strength.@WWE Superstars show the world what it means to #FightLikeAGirl this April, only on @Quibi. ???? pic.twitter.com/FO4B40VolM
— WWE (@WWE) March 12, 2020

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE bussed in the fans attending last night's WWE NXT at the Performance Center from Full Sail University.

The Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa brawl was shot live as it happened in the Performance Center and was not a pre-taped segment.

Originally Posted by PWI

For those who have asked, Major League Wrestling's staff and talent are already in Southern California or Tijuana, Mexico for the MLW vs. AAA event tomorrow in Mexico. Talent have been advised that even though they are in Mexico, if they do not feel comfortable performing, they do not have to perform. As of now, that event is still on as there have not been any cancellations in Mexico due to the coronavirus.

MLW's offices in the New Rochelle, NY area are near the current coronavirus containment zone but not within it. MLW advised all office staff to take this past Monday off and not come into the office as the area schools are all closed and MLW wanted staff to remain with their families.

No upcoming MLW events are postponed or canceled, although given the way of the world this week, that could change ...

MLW had planned on announcing autograph signings with talents in Tampa over Wrestlemania week today but those plans are off due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Several MLW talents who were slated to head to Japan for international dates have had those plans canceled, obviously, due to the coronavirus.

Originally Posted by PWI

FOX 29 in Philadelphia is reporting the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, which housed last week's Elimination Chamber PPV, is closed to all but essential employees due to the coronavirus outbreak. A country music concert slated for the venue tonight will be postponed.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Booker T took to Twitter and announced that Reality Of Wrestling’s ‘No Limits’ show that was scheduled for March 14th has been postponed due to the Coronavirus. The event is being rescheduled for April 11th and if tickets were purchased for the March 14th show, those tickets can be used to get into the April 11th event. Reality of Wrestling’s ‘Stars Of Tomorrow’ show on March 28th is still scheduled to continue as planned, barring any changes. DEFY Wrestling was also forced to cancel their March 29th show.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Ring of Honor cancelled a meet and greet session today in Las Vegas. Marty Scurll and PCO were scheduled to be the focuses of those meet and greet but with the Coronavirus outbreak, ROH did want to take any risks. ROH also announced that at ‘Pure Excellence’ on April 11th, La Faccion Ingobernable (RUSH, Dragon Lee & Kenny King) are taking on ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bandido, Flamita and Rey Horus.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Wrestlecon is one of the major conventions associated with WrestleMania 36 in Tampa, Florida. As the world continues to monitor the Coronavirus, the status of Wrestlecon has received an update.

The convention, which has events attached to it such as the IMPACT Wrestling’s special TNA revival event, TNA: There’s No Place Like Home, and is set to feature a super show of their own with superstars such as Bandido, Zack Sabre Jr., Low-Ki, and more, has said in an update on Twitter that the status of the event is up in the air and is all dependent on whether or not WrestleMania 36 takes place.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WWE's stock took another massive tumble.

When the stock market closed on the afternoon of March 12, the company's stock price finished at $32.38 per share, down 16.11 percent from when WWE's stock closed at $38.60 per share on March 11. This is the lowest the stock has ever been since January 12, 2018 when it sat at $32.18 per share.

WWE, as well as the world of pro wrestling and sports, has been rocked by the coronavirus outbreak, putting WrestleMania 36 at risk of being canceled or postponed. Although no decision has been made in regards to the show's status, with it still currently taking place on April 5 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa ...

WWE then released a statement saying that the company's finances could be impacted by the coronavirus and has withdrawn any previously-mentioned projections and guidance for 2020 due to the uncertainty of the coronavirus' long-term effect business-wise.

Originally Posted by Observer

The wrestling world continues to react to the coronavirus outbreak and the large gathering bans happening around the United States.

NXT

• Friday's show in Venice, Florida, was canceled as Sarasota County canceled all public events. That news was not formally announced by their or WWE's Twitter account as of this writing.
• Saturday's show in Daytona, Florida, at the Midtown Cultural & Educational Center was also canceled by the mayor. However, you can still buy tickets on Ticketmaster as of this wriing, nor has WWE or NXT officially announced it.

Other Shows

• The Bullet Club Beach Party set for Mania week in Tampa, FL, has been canceled.
• The Kevin Owens Inside The Ropes One Night Only event has been rescheduled for June 5th in Glasgow, Scotland.
• The EVOLVE March 27-29 Recruitment Camp in Port Richey, FL, is still happening as scheduled.

Originally Posted by PWI

Full Sail University, the home of WWE NXT's weekly broadcasts, announced today that they are shutting down all classes, labs and "group events" going forward due to the coronavirus outbreak, which was declared a National Emergency today in the United States.

NXT's live Wednesday night tapings at Full Sail Live are also suspended. PWInsider.com has confirmed that going forward, NXT will be broadcasting out of the WWE Performance Center, as it did this past week due to a conflict that prevented them from running Full Sail. While WWE did bring in three bus-loads of fans for this past week's taping, it is not likely they would do that for additional tapings at the PC, instead taping with no fans present and only "essential" personnel in house. The plan is to return to Full Sail when that is feasible.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

WWE is proceeding with Friday Night SmackDown at its new location at the WWE Performance Center tonight with no fans in attendance ... It is going to be a very strange show beyond the empty arena, the company must move ahead with the build toward WrestleMania even though that event must be in question.

Given the lengths that many sports leagues have taken, WWE hasn’t come off well with their aversion to acknowledging reality and the potential health risks for its talent. For the performers, the idea of traveling across the country in this climate – even for empty arena shows – must be worrisome on top of their given line of work coming into close contact with others as a requisite job requirement. If it gets to a point where one performer tests positive for the virus, it will virtually shut down the ability to do shows as it would affect the locker room that would need to be tested and quarantined as we have seen in the NBA with two positive cases. We are not talking about an era in the company where you didn’t get paid if you didn’t work and while talent will take a degree of a hit without live events, it isn’t like they won’t be paid and would probably put themselves and their families at ease being home and not traveling the country and potentially bringing a virus back to them.

I don’t envy the decision-makers and some leeway should be provided but there comes a point where you must watch the example set by other competing sports leagues and franchises. It is not to say WWE couldn’t continue to produce programming for the USA Network and Fox during a down period from outside the ring content, a ‘broadcast premiere’ of last year’s WrestleMania, a sit-down interview with Vince McMahon and other key figures addressing the crisis.

A decision regarding WrestleMania should have been made this week as delaying the decision only causes more anxiety for those reliant on the show happening. It appears that neither WWE nor the City of Tampa wants to be the ones to tell fans that Christmas is canceled but Santa can’t make any toys if he’s sick. There are also the financial implications that need to be explored of who is on the hook for what costs if they pull the plug, but one side needs to take the reigns on this.

I truly empathize with the countless independent promoters and wrestlers that have so much riding on this week of shows happening. They are in a painful limbo as they await the dominoes to fall and rides on whether WWE proceeds ahead. Frankly, that decision may be taken away from WWE and a ruling is made that it just cannot happen.

Originally Posted by PWI

Major League Wrestling's combined event in partnership with AAA tonight in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, the AAA vs. MLW Super Series at Auditorio Fausto Gutierrez will go on as scheduled, but without a pretty major person. MLW owner Court Bauer will be missing his first ever MLW show as he's been in the middle of negotiating what we are told is "high level TV talks" and has been back and forth between LA and NYC working on a deal. In his absence, Konnan and Mr Saint Laurent (head of MLW Talent Relations) will be running the show with Bauer communicating via Facetime.

We are told MLW has enough content in the can already that after tonight's taping, they expect to be able to continue to deliver new episodes to BeIN Sport weekly without a problem.

Given the way things are going with the coronavirus outbreak, MLW is mapping out numerous contingency plans ranging from the next six weeks to the next six months, attempting to plan ahead.

Originally Posted by PWI

Roman Reigns liked a tweet from a fan who showed concern for his compromised immune system due to his battle with leukemia and performing at WrestleMania

Dear @WWERomanReigns,
Please take extra precautions and sit out WrestleMania if you have to. As a cancer survivor, you are already likely to have a compromised immune system. ????????
Sincerely,
A concerned fan ????????
— ????J0SE (@JoseCienAlmas) March 12, 2020

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network News is reporting that more 1993 WCW Saturday Night is coming to WWE Network This Monday, March 16 as a part of the March classic content drop

Originally Posted by PWI

Q - Have you heard anything about the tiered WWE Network finally taken shape and being officially launched?

A - We have been told that there has been no real indication internally as to when they will launch. The original plan was to launch in January but then that was delayed.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

David Bixenspan has a feature on VICE regarding the impact a cancellation of WrestleMania Weekend will have on independent promotions and conventions. The article features comments from Brett Lauderdale of Game Changer Wrestling, wrestler Chris Dickinson, and the most sobering account from Michael Bochicchio of Highspots who stated that a full cancellation would likely result in the promoter having to sell his house.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Michael Bochiccio at Highspots did a video Q&A on the current situation involving WrestleCon for WrestleMania Weekend amidst the COVID-19 crisis. The promoter of the convention stated they have not canceled the event yet due to the liability he would assume by canceling it on his own. He stated that the hotel fee alone by canceling now would bankrupt WrestleCon and potentially bankrupt Highspots, as well. He added that he has put in close to $200,000 for this convention and assured anyone that has purchased a ticket to the convention they will receive a full refund.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

EVOLVE has said they will follow the lead of WrestleMania regarding their shows in Tampa that weekend and are still scheduled to proceed as of this writing.

Originally Posted by Fightful

WrestleTalk announced that it will do a show on March 16 to help support independent wrestlers whose bookings have been impacted by the coronavirus. The show will feature matches from Will Ospreay, Bea Priestley, David Starr, Rampage Brown and more. Full details here.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Although he plays a malicious character with no remorse when he's inside the squared circle, Sami Callihan is urging the wrestling community to come together like never before during the Coronavirus outbreak and says that he will not be appearing at any wrestling events until the global pandemic is more contained.

Making the statement on his Twitter account, this comes amid uncertainty surrounding wrestling event set to take place during WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida. Sami says that at this time it is not about characters or storylines but about keeping one another safe.

Originally Posted by Observer

At least for this week, whether it was people needing entertainment or a combination of airing the Royal Rumble and having Steve Austin, Undertaker, and Edge on the show, a Raw almost devoid of first-run wrestling did 2.34 million viewers.

It was the best number for the show since February 17, and up eight percent from last week.

Raw still took the top three spots in 18-49 with a 0.76 average, with no cable news show beating 0.55.

Raw continued its daylight savings time pattern of the second hour being the highest rated, perhaps because of the re-airing of this year's men's Royal Rumble match. Austin was saved for last, and there was a very significant second to third hour drop of 15 percent ...

Raw was down 13 percent from the same week last year.

The three hours were:

8 p.m. 2.41 million viewers
9 p.m. 2.49 million viewers
10 p.m. 2.11 million viewers

Originally Posted by PWI

Georgia Smith, the daughter of WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020 member Davey Boy Smith noted on her Twitter account that she had spoken with WWE and that the company is hoping to hold the postponed Hall of Fame ceremony, originally slated for Thursday 4/2 in Tampa over Summerslam weekend this August. Summerslam is slated for 8/23 in Boston, MA at the TDBank Garden Arena.

Originally Posted by PWI

The Tampa Bay Local Organizing Committee issued the following statement:

"Our community has waited 36 years to host WrestleMania and while we are saddened that this unforeseen situation has led us to today's announcement, this is totally the right call for the security and safety of everyone involved. A huge thank you to all our local leaders and our friends at WWE, as we collectively worked through the unprecedented fluidity of the last few weeks. The Tampa Bay-WWE partnership has never been stronger."

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Raymond James Stadium’s Twitter account has information up about ticket refunds for WrestleMania 36. Refunds for WrestleMania week events are available at the point of purchase and those who purchased their tickets through Ticketmaster will be refunded in 30 days.

Originally Posted by PWI

As noted, the current State of Emergency the City of New York is under makes it impossible for WWE to run their scheduled event at Madison Square Garden on Sunday 3/22.

We are told that as of two weeks ago, WWE had locked in a Saturday 6/27 return to the Garden, so it may be that date is announced as the replacement with ticketholders being able to use their tickets on that date.

The 6/27 date was put on hold prior to the current coronavirus outbreak.

Given the vortex the world is in right now however, anything is possible and subject to change, as recent days have shown. WWE and MSG have yet to officially announce the 3/22 postponement, but it will 100% not be taking place on that date.

Originally Posted by PWI

Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide announced today that they are postponing all of their events until further notice due to the virus pandemic.

Originally Posted by PWI

Last night was the first time a Royal Rumble match has aired on the USA Network since the very first Rumble, which aired as a USA Network special in January 1988.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet noted on Twitter that in order to enter the WWE Performance Center, WWE talent, crew and those alike have to pass a screening conducted by a team of physicians.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Post Stock News has information up about a lawsuit that WWE is involved in with Tilray, Inc. and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and both claimed that WWE has made misleading statements about their respective companies. Inovio is involved because they’re claiming WWE made misleading statements about the company’s development of a vaccine for the coronavirus which led to them losing a number of shareholders.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

With the news making the rounds that WrestleMania is taking place from the Performance Center, former multi-time WWE Champion and WWE Backstage contributor CM Punk tweeted the following about the news:

“Well that’s one way to make sure Roman finally gets not booed and nobody chants for meeeeeeee.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Per PWInsider, the truck that Becky Lynch drove to the Performance Center on RAW was supposed to be a part of WrestleMania AXXESS and incorporated into her WrestleMania 36 entrance.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

To promote their ‘KAYfABE’ wrestling show, Lita and Gail Kim spoke with Cultaholic for an interview. Gail and Lita opened up about their time in WWE, specifically having to do Bra & Panties matches. They were not too fond of the matches and Gail shared that her first house show match in WWE was a Bra & Panties match and she was terrified of what was to come.

Gail Kim: “I was mortified, because I never had to do that on the independents and it was my very first house show match with WWE, and it wasn’t televised, thank goodness. But, it was… I just didn’t even know how to go about it. I had to be told how to do it and it wasn’t my comfort zone. We’ll just say that and so when you’re not comfortable, you’re not gonna perform your best.”

Lita: “I feel like the girls would really bond over that because no one was stoked on it and so when they would go out there, it’s like we would all kind of just run to the back, we’d cover ourselves up and roll our eyes and be like, ‘Moving on!’”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Chavo Guerrero joined The Wrestling INC Daily podcast and he was asked about the Latino representation on Monday Night RAW with Rey Mysterio, Angel Garza, Humberto Carrillo, Zelina Vega and Andrade all being intertwined in a storyline and spotlighted. Chavo thinks highly of all the aforementioned individuals and thinks it’s good that they are able to put money in their pockets as well as bring in money for WWE.

“You know, those guys are all super, uber talented and there’s no hiding that a lot of great talent has come out of Mexico before and not only Eddie, but so many like a Mil Mascaras and all of these people that are box office stars. Not just great wrestlers but drew a lot of money, and that’s kind of what it comes down to really. A lot of people can put on good matches but if no one’s really paying to see it, WWE will not get behind it in a sense because it’s a business. That’s what wrestling is. To see these guys and see Rey [Mysterio] come out and kind of, to me, elevate a lot of these guys and now these guys are just starting to draw money, it’s great to see. It’s great to see that these guys have the opportunity to go out there and not only put on incredible matches, but some money in their pockets and make some money for the organization. I love that. I love to see that. You look at Alberto Del Rio, he was a pretty big draw then. He did alright for himself.”

During his appearance on the show, Chavo also revealed that the filming for Netflix’s GLOW series has been postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Originally Posted by Fightful

After briefly tumbling to just under $30 per share, WWE stock recovered and closed at $32.75 per share when the market closed.

Originally Posted by Fightful

Fightful has learned that AEW Dynamite will take place at Daily's Place in Jacksonville as originally planned. This past week, the City of Jacksonville twitter indicated that all city-owned venues would be closed, including Daily's Place. However, we've heard from the AEW side that the city's twitter account apparently thought a public event was being referred to.

AEW Dynamite will proceed at Daily's Place as a closed door event with no fans, and the city of Jacksonville has not had an issue with that.

Originally Posted by Fightful

The official WWE twitter account got social media talking on Tuesday afternoon by tweeting an upside-down message that read "The Truth Will Be Heard." The account also changed the Twitter header to a blank white image and the profile picture to a blank black image. The bio was also changed to say "Expose. W a t c h i n g. //"

The tweet was quickly deleted and the profile has returned to normal.

wtf??? pic.twitter.com/PERETZfLTo

— sarah ٭ (@flairsnia) March 17, 2020

This is what happened for those who missed it. @WWE posted this and their bio looked like this & a minute later it was back to normal.

hacked or we're being worked pic.twitter.com/uR1VgFr0NZ

— The BLHW (@StephanieHypes) March 17, 2020

It's unknown if the account was hacked or if WWE is running some sort of angle.

IMPACT Wrestling is currently running a hacker gimmick where Reality Is Lost took over the IMPACT account at the end of last Tuesday's episode. WWE is also doing a hacker gimmick with Malcolm Bivens trying to hack into The Bump every week.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Chris Jericho chatted with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to promote VICE’s Dark Side Of The Ring episode about Chris Benoit that premieres on March 24th. Jericho shared that a great portion of the documentary focuses in on how much Eddie Guerrero’s passing impacted Chris Benoit.

“There was a huge connection between Chris’ life and Eddie Guerrero’s life, and his death, so half the story is the story of Eddie and the other half is of Chris. I think we did the right way of portraying this, reminding everyone there were people behind this, not just sensational murder coverage. There is a story to tell of a friendship and a family, and a guy that was not a monster. This was someone you could trust and that was very respected in the wrestling community amongst his peers.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Dark Side Of The Ring uploaded a teaser for the Chris Benoit episode of their series that premieres on March 24th.

Originally Posted by Observer

The main event angle on last night's Impact included the announcement that Ken Shamrock is the newest member of the promotion's Hall of Fame.

It was hyped that last night's show would feature a "career announcement" from Shamrock. Josh Mathews revealed that Shamrock will join Impact Wrestling's Hall of Fame at Bound for Glory later this year.

A video package then played, with it including some footage from Shamrock's WWE career. It highlighted Shamrock being a former WWF Intercontinental Champion, Tag Team Champion, and submitting The Rock to win the 1998 King of the Ring. The footage said courtesy of WWE on it, and Impact also thanked WWE for it

Originally Posted by Observer

AEW has revealed this week's set of top-five roster rankings:
Men's division --

Champion: Jon Moxley (7-0 singles record in 2020, 12-2-1 overall record)

Chris Jericho (0-1 singles record in 2020, 11-3-1 overall record)
MJF (3-0 singles record in 2020, 8-1 overall record)
Kenny Omega (1-0 singles record in 2020, 17-6 overall record)
Cody (4-1 singles record in 2020, 11-4-1 overall record)
PAC (3-2 singles record in 2020, 9-6-1 overall record)

Women's division --

Champion: Nyla Rose (4-1 singles record in 2020, 9-4 overall record)

Hikaru Shida (4-1 singles record in 2020, 9-5 overall record)
Kris Statlander (2-2 singles record in 2020, 6-5 overall record)
Yuka Sakazaki (1-1 singles record in 2020, 1-4 overall record)
Britt Baker (2-2 singles record in 2020, 10-6 overall record)
Riho (3-2 singles record in 2020, 11-5 overall record)

Tag team division --

Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (6-0 tag team record in 2020, 17-6 overall record for Omega, 13-8 overall record for Page)

The Dark Order (5-0 tag team record in 2020, 9-3 overall record for Evil Uno, 9-4 overall record for Stu Grayson)
The Young Bucks (2-2 tag team record in 2020, 12-9 overall record for Nick Jackson, 12-8 overall record for Matt Jackson)
SCU (2-3 tag team record in 2020, 16-7 overall record for Scorpio Sky, 15-6 overall record for Frankie Kazarian)
Best Friends (3-2 tag team record in 2020, 9-12 overall record for Trent Barreta, 8-10 overall record for Chuck Taylor)
Private Party (2-1 tag team record in 2020, 6-11 overall record for Marq Quen, 6-11 overall record for Isiah Kassidy)

Originally Posted by Observer

WWE has revealed the hosts for tonight's modified format edition of NXT.

Prior to tonight's NXT, WWE announced that the episode will be hosted by Triple H and Tom Phillips. WWE issued a statement yesterday noting that the show "will air as regularly scheduled in a modified format with elements ranging from in-depth character profiles and story breakdowns as well as never-before-seen interviews and content."

Triple H and Michael Cole did commentary for last Friday's SmackDown, while Phillips, Byron Saxton, and Jerry Lawler called Raw.

Originally Posted by PWI

It was announced that Brandi Rhodes will be ring announcing as Justin Roberts was unable to make tonight's Dynamite taping in Florida:

If I gotta do it, I’m gonna do it my way. This’ll be fun, watch. ???? #AEWDynamite #AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/aVoUMEc5PS
— The Brandalorian (@TheBrandiRhodes) March 18, 2020

Originally Posted by PWI

Jim Ross noted on his social media that he's flown to Jacksonville, so that's where AEW will be broadcasting tonight. It will be from what has been termed a "closed set" so there will be no fans in attendance.

Before all the restrictions on public gatherings, there was a plan to charge $10 admission at Daily's Place and donate the entire live gate to charity.

As of yesterday, AEW was not planning to tape additional content beyond AEW Dynamite and AEW Dark as they want to continue to go live weekly.

Originally Posted by PWI

The WWE 3/22 date at Madison Square Garden is now officially listed as postponed. They have not announced a replacement date but as we noted, there was a scheduled 6/27 date planned before the past few weeks happened.

If you need an idea of how massive the shut downs in New York City will be, the Hilton Hotel that hosted the 2004 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony and the 2019 Wrestlecon is shutting down indefinetly as of 3/20, closing all 1,878 rooms. It is the biggest hotel in all of New York City.

Originally Posted by PWI

The New Japan Pro Wrestling website has an interview with Kota Ibushi. One of the topics bought up was the illness that forced him off New Japan's U.S. tour earlier this year. Some highlights:

What happened exactly - "I just felt absolutely terrible one day, and threw up two or three times. What can happen is that there’s this thin connective tissue between your stomach and your esophagus, and that can tear and get damaged. That’s Mallory-Weiss. (Syndrome)...Ibushi: Apparently a lot of college students get it. If they’re not used to alcohol and binge drink they throw up, and that sparks this issue. For me, it was probably the ‘flu that sparked the vomiting."

Having Two Illnesses at once: "Oh, it sucked. The flu alone sucked. I had this awful cough, and I felt a bunch of mucus in my throat. I thought I could clear it and couldn’t. Then I coughed really hard, about five or six times and all of a sudden there’s all this clotted blood on my hands....and I had a fever over 40 degrees at the time. I thought, ‘man, that’s it, I’m gonna die…' And my lower back was in so much pain. Enough where I was thinking ‘I don’t care if I die, as long as my back stops hurting’. Bear in mind, this was at 4AM on the day I was set to fly out to America."

Missing the tour: "Even if I’d dragged myself onto that plane, I’d be nothing but a hindrance to everybody. I wouldn’t be able to do anything, and if I felt terrible on the flight, I couldn’t just ask to be dropped off. It took two or three days for the fever to come down, but the symptoms stayed with me for a whole week. To be completely honest, I’m still a little sore in the stomach area, so I haven’t been drinking at all; I’m not a big drinker anyway."

Originally Posted by PWI

The NWA also announced the following:

We also have opened up a special merchandise offer to help the roster and staff who have been affected by the COVID-19 suspension of events.

All profits from these five items will go directly to those staff and talents. NWA Logo Men’s Tank Top, NWA Powerrr Stack Men Tank Top, NWA Logo Women’s Tank Top, NWA Powerrr Stack Women’s Tank Top? and pre-orders of the new WE ARE NWA POWERRR T-Shirt

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

After receiving a cease and desist letter from WWE, Freelance Wrestling changed the name of their March 21st event from “In Your Warehouse” to “Warehourse Wars”.

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Speaking to Commercial Appeal following Monday Night RAW at the Performance Center, Jerry Lawler stated that he’s not against WWE inserting crowd noises into the WrestleMania 36 matches to make the empty arena bouts more entertaining for those watching from home.

“I’ve been to (football) training camps where the players go through their practice sessions with loud music or crowd noise piped in. I don’t think it would hurt anything at all if they piped in some crowd noise behind the matches, and even explain it to the fans. It’ll make the matches more entertaining and it’ll make it easier for the performers themselves.”

Originally Posted by Post Wrestling

Japan’s government officials are set to have a meeting about the Coronavirus and following that, STARDOM will have information on if fans will be able to attend their Cindarella tournament. The tournament is set for March 24th at Korakuen Hall.